Behind Smoke and Mirrors
by Zade Kay
Summary: AU Kagome's life was complicated enough. Vampires, werethings, and your basic nightlife were her standard fare.. Throw in the fact that a few of the more powerful elite are obsessing over her.. And you were barely touching Kag's private hell.
1. Scars

A/N: Note, this was inspired by Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series, but only inspired! It may have some similarities, but just with a strong female lead character (Kag, who else, doigh?) and a world of vampires, demons and the like… and her being a slayer. But that isn't a really original idea in the first place. I just wanted to do a fic with Kagome as a STRONG leading character. She really needs to be kick-ass sometimes, right?

Oh and disclaimer… INSERT STANDARD DISCLAIMER HERE

* * *

Beginnings…..--

* * *

Kagome growled at her reflection and, for no other reason than she needed something to do with her hands, began to plait her hair almost angrily.

Almost waist-length jet black hair gradually fell into a messy braid and then trailed heavily down her back.

She pinched her cheeks then, trying to bring some colour to her pale face.

Having a naturally pale complexion was bad enough, until you threw in the fact that she did most of her work at night, and had developed a bad case of photosensitivity.

Or hatred toward the world during the day.

She stopped pinching when it began to hurt, and then realized she had probably done nothing more than bruise her own face.

Ijeet.

She bit her lip and studied herself clinically for a brief moment.

She wasn't beautiful.

Not classically.

Sure, she was pretty enough. But that wasn't it. She was… maybe captivating was the word.

Or maybe not..

Leave it at interesting and be done with it.

She drew looks, and not just because she was attractive. She was petite, maybe 5'6" in a good pair of shoes. She was thin, wiry even, with small features and her saving grace was her raven hair and overlarge grey-blue eyes. Like cloudy ice.

But she had been told that she had _'something'_.

Yep. Just what every girl wants to hear.

Maybe it was her gifts, talents, whatever you want to call it. Or maybe it was the sense of _'mystère' _she exuded.

'mystère' roughly translated as 'knowing more than the average person can handle and still sleep at night.' Or: 'killing the things that give little children, and grown-ups too for that matter, nightmares for a living.'

Yep.

That was Kagome. A bad-ass killer.

She snorted.

'Get over yourself, Higurashi.'

Kagome turned from the mirror with a snarl and tried to ignore the scarring that just peeked over the top of her simple collared button-down shirt.

Kagome wasn't so much of a killer, so much as a highly paid mercenary.

A damned good one if she did say so herself. And she did.

She left the bathroom and went to her bedroom, easily avoiding obstacles in the dark of her apartment from memory and found a pair of worn jeans slung over the headboard of her bed and pulled them on.

Time to make some money.

She strapped a simple leather sheath over her denim-clad thigh and ran her fingers over the handle of the knife it held absently, but affectionately.

She often considered why she didn't opt for a gun, but that was a moot point. She didn't know a hell of a lot about them, didn't care to, and besides, most of the jobs she dealt with involved creatures that were more than a match for gunpower.

Knives of silver was where it was at.

And if you weren't allergic to a bit of silver, she was adept enough with a knife that it didn't make much difference.

Besides, she just plain didn't like guns. They were so..

She cut the thought off, aware that it was slightly hypocritical, if not pig-headed to baulk over the violence of guns when she killed for a living.

Kagome considered throwing open the heavy black curtains that shrouded her apartment in darkness and kept the day out, but discarded it. Although letting the moonlight into her apartment was appealing, she was going out anyways, and she'd probably be so exhausted on her return that she wouldn't remember to close them.

Which led to much cursing when the sun woke her up from her much needed sleep.

Kagome let her overlong shirt hide the knife at the top of her thigh, and added a wrist -sheath on her left arm and let her shirt hide that as well.

Then she threw on a pair of sneakers, a light corduroy jacket, and grabbed her keys off the hook by the door and left her apartment with a sigh, using the fire escape so she wouldn't have to deal with neighbors, although who else would be up at one in the morning ready to prowl the streets was a mystery.

Work called..

Beautiful.

She tossed her braid with a grin. She loved her job. She felt alive when she was out in the city at night. The sights, the sounds, the smells, the feelings of the city at night were patently unique.

Dangerous. But hers.

She lived immediately downtown, mostly because she had no car.

It was a simple equation, Kagome plus car equaled dead pedestrians. The city nightlife pulled at her other senses so strongly, that the one and only time Kagome had gotten behind the wheel with the intention of learning to drive she had hit no less than three parked cars.

Magic and transportation were unwilling to mingle.

So she hit pavement and walked the three blocks to her unofficial office, letting the night air wash over her and soothe her soul.

In reveling in the feeling of being alive, Kagome failed to notice the golden eyes that followed her movements from a table outside a night café, of which the city was famous for.

If she had caught the barely suppressed shudder and moan accompanying that watchful gaze, she probably would have beat the life out of its owner with intense satisfaction.

But of course she didn't.


	2. Personal Space

Disclaimer: (NOTE THIS ISN'T AN ANITA BLAKE FANFIC, only inspired by the strong female lead Anita Blake represents and a desire for a kick-ass Kagome.)

* * *

****

You think you know a person..--

* * *

Kagome had to admit that there were times when the fighter's instincts she had worked so hard to achieve were a real pain in the ass.

And slightly dangerous to bystanders.

Now would be one of those times.

Kagome stared at Hojo for a long moment, intensely horrified by his ability to smile and look so blandly oblivious with a knife less than an inch away from his abdomen.

That scared the hell out of Kagome.

She pulled the knife away, quick as she could without drawing attention to it and slid the body-warmed blade against her forearm and up into the sheath on her forearm.

When she could breathe again, she glared at Hojo.

"Don't _ever _sneak up on me again Hojo!"

'I could have killed the idiot before he even caught on to the knife in his gut.'

"Sorry Kagome! I called your name, but I guess you were somewhere else."

Her first thought was as to whether or not he had seen the knife.

Her second was to how he could smile so _goddamn _much.

She didn't bother answering him as she began to walk again.

Kagome scanned the street and storefronts around her automatically, before letting her gaze fall back to Hojo's blaringly innocent face as he matched pace to keep up with her.

"Hojo.. You really shouldn't try and.. be around me. I'm not particularly loved in certain circles," She nearly snorted at her own phrasing. "and I couldn't stand to see you hurt for it."

There. That was the best that she could word it.

Hojo patted her arm placatingly and she gritted her teeth. This was not the first time they'd had this conversation.

"How could anyone not like you Kagome?"

And there was the reason. How could you try and tell someone you killed vampires for a living when they were so... So very...

Thick?

Maybe she should tell him she was a prostitute, and that if she kept being seen with a man who wasn't a paying customer her pimp was gonna bash his face in.

Lot of good that would do. She could imagine the horrified look on Hojo's face and picture him trying to save her from a world of sin.

"I don't know Hojo, I guess they don't see me the way you do."

Hojo grinned at her and brushed a fall of shaggy cinnamon hair out of his eyes.

She smiled back even though she tried not to and then turned her head to watch the street again.

Hojo often met her on her way to work, as it was on his delivery route. Hojo delivered organic veggies to a few of the health food stores and restaurants along the street.

His grandmother grew them or something.

Hojo had an honest-to-goodness crush on her, and as much as she hated her bleeding heart for it, she could never tell him just to go stuff it.

Besides, it was somewhat nice to have someone look at her, and see something they wanted.

To see her as a nice, normal, pretty girl with a few quirks instead of... what she was.

Also, there were few enough genuinely good people left in the world for her to crush their poster boy under her metaphoric, and possible literal, heel.

That, and Hojo reminded her of a puppy. The bastard and his big dopey brown eyes.

That didn't stop her from cursing under her breath when he insisted on helping her tie her shoelaces when they unknotted.

Luckily, as Hojo was fighting with knots and the hair that kept falling into his face, he didn't see her go rigid as a very familiar set of fingers danced over her denim-clad, and apparently inviting, bum.

It was a good thing as far as Kagome didn't have to deal with his misguided chivalry when a quick elbow to the throat was just as effective.

The wet choking and gagging finally alerted him to the fact that there was someone with them. He patted her sneaker and stood with a smile, apparently misunderstanding her glares at the newcomer as a greeting.

"I'm Hojo, a friend of Kagome's, and you are..?" Hojo inquired, hand out for a handshake that was blatantly ignored.

Struggling to breathe, she noticed gleefully, Miroku sucked in a lungful of air, running his hands over his throat to check for permanent damage and threw Hojo a look.

"Kagome?"Miroku raised an artful brow and turned the look on her.

She dropped a shoulder with a scowl.

That was the other thing about Hojo, he never, ever called her just "Kag" like everyone else. He always insisted on Kagome, which drove her absolutely insane.

"Wait, Hojo.. Is this the guy?"

Kagome rolled her eyes and tossed her braid over her shoulder.

Miroku stood with as much dignity as he could manage while still wheezing.

"Ah. Youse want I should get ridda him? Real quick-like?"

Real cute Miroku. Real cute. In his own way, Miroku was very protective of her, like an older brother.

A very perverted, twisted family values type of brother.

"I can deal, Miroku." She warned, giving her friend and co-worker a pointed look.

Hojo was following the exchange looking slightly perplexed, but still vaguely happy in his puppy-like simplicity. Damn he was cute. In a kickable way.

Kagome caught sight of the familiar gothic stone building and relief washed over her like a tidal wave. "So anyway Hojo, we're here, this is where Miroku and I get off." She sighed with obvious relief.

Which was answered with;

"_Really?_ And here I thought you were clean and pure. My, my.. Get off indeed."

And;

"Oh, you work together?"

Guess which belonged to which.

She nodded, grabbed Miroku, who was starting to make seductive purring noises, by the ear and waved to Hojo before dragging her friend past the low black-iron gate and into the building.

She smacked Miroku none-too-gently upside the head and then promptly ignored him.

With a deep breath of the air inside the building, she felt her body relax instinctively.

'Oblivion. I'm home.'

Whoever had named the small gothic-style building had gotten it right. Entering the first floor of the building was like entering a dream world. It just had this feeling of sanctuary, and a faint feeling of magic.

She passed an empty office with a shudder and headed across the black marble flooring and through a small hallway into the pit.

Which was their pet name for the staff room.

_'Thank you God, for not making me get a real job.'_

Offices scared her beyond all reasoning.

No, the pit was where she belonged, with its charcoal gray walls, thick beige carpeting and finally the wrap-around couch and table that was her workspace.

A slim, lengthy figure was draped upside down on the couch, feet propped up on the back cushions, and head hanging over the edge.

"How you manage to do that without all the blood rushing to your head and making you pass out is beyond me, Sango." She grinned, wiggling her fingers in greeting.

Her friend and fellow hunter grinned up at her from her position and flipped her legs back over her own head, vaulting with one arm so that she landed lithely on her feet.

"It's all a matter of will my dear. All a matter of will." Sango loosely embraced her with one arm and then scowled at something over Kagome's shoulder.

"What'd you bring the lecher for?"

Kagome turned and caught sight of Miroku propped against the door frame, watching them with a faint smile.

"I didn't notice him following me." She frowned, mentally preparing herself for the show to come. Neither came out unscathed when Miroku and Sango had an encounter.

It was true, Miroku was one of the only people who could get under both her physical and magical radars and catch her off guard. She supposed he managed it after years of practice sneaking up on young girls to cop a feel.

Sango gave a disgusted sigh and stretched her arms high over her head with an arch of her back, showing a sliver of midriff under her shirt.

Kagome repressed the envy she felt at the other girl's height.

Sango finished stretching and pulled a note off the bulletin board to her right and handed it to Kagome before pulling her thick chestnut hair into a ponytail.

She scanned the note and then groaned.

"Nothing? Again? I swear to God, how can you not have any work to do when the city's crawling with vampires inc.?"

Sango nodded. "I know, I know. But put it this way, we get to go out on company payroll, buy dinner, have a fun night off.. And then we can go hunting on our own if we want. It's freedom Kag. Fuhreeeeduuum. I can taste the fast food and adrenaline now." Sango was bouncing from foot to foot like a small child and grinning at Kagome wickedly.

"A night out does sound like fun, ladies." Miroku cut in smoothly, managing to pack a simple statement with innuendos abounding.

They both turned to glare at Miroku, who was currently trying to fingercomb his hair out of his eyes.

"No way Miroku. I said I wanted a night off, and that means from ass-pinches and in-office sexual harassment too." Sango looked ready to beat him unconcious and run to freedom any minute.

"Sango! I would never.. All right so I would, but I deserve a night off too." He flashed his white teeth in a heart-melting grin, his violet eyes softening with a pleading light.

Kagome smiled even as Sango began to growl and put up a hand.

"You don't have any work either?" She queried cautiously.

Miroku wasn't a hunter, he worked on the magical end of their work spectrum, setting up wards and other things that Kagome had no grasp of.

Miroku smiled slyly.

"I didn't say that. But I'm ahead of where I need to be at this point, and an overworked caster is an accident waiting to happen."

"Overworked, my ass." Sango bit out, giving him a dirty look, and then looking pointedly over his shoulder at the exit.

"Which is just like a peach, Sango."

"Sango, Miroku, enough. Mir, you can come with if you keep your hands to yourself and-- What? Peach? What?" Kagome blinked, confused.

Miroku wiped the front of his close-fitting black t-shirt, brushing away unseen dirt, and then cast his violet gaze at the tall girl.

"Your ass. Just like a peach. Luscious, sweet, just enough flesh.." He purred, throwing subtle out the window, as was his style.

Sango went several shades of crimson and made three separate tries to speak, which were hilariously unsuccessful, and then squeaked and grabbed Kagome's arm and dragged her out of the pit and out of the building.

"Mmm mm MM!" Miroku enunciated as Sango stumbled past, deliberately provoking the hunter.

Kagome nearly wet her pants laughing at the embarrassment and anger vibrating off her older friend.

"Some friend you are Kag. I've defended you when he went after you!" Sango cried, her voice husky with embarrassment.

Kagome grinned at her and tugged at the hem of Sango's black tanktop. "Ah. But we know Miroku doesn't really mean anything when he flirts with _me._"

Stress the 'me' to imply that it meant something entirely different when Miroku went after Sango.

"Bitch!" Sango tugged on a piece of Kagome's hair that had fallen out of her braid.

Miroku caught up with them and threw an arm over both of their shoulders. "I've heard tell that there are some fine drinking establishments this end of town."

Kagome froze for a minute, her muscles rigid in sudden terror, then kept walking.

"I don't feel like going to a bar and watching you pick up prostitots all night Miroku." Sango growled, saving Kagome's bum, unaware of her friend's panic.

She began to breathe again. Sango didn't want to go to a bar. Thank you Powers that Be.

"I'm sorry.. Prostitots?" Miroku's eyes narrowed in confusion and he looked to Sango for an explanation.

"Yes, prostitots. Young girls with fake id's and cleavage." Sango clarified, her back rigid still.

"I like it. Good word that."

"You avoided the issue, caster."

Kagome tuned them out for a moment and tried to relax. It wasn't a big deal if they had decided to go to a bar, she did have a fake id. But it was a pretty unconvincing fake id.

And trying to explain to your two friends of many years that you weren't actually the twenty one you had led them to believe, but actually seventeen was slightly frightening.

She was already younger than them when she was playing twenty one, they were both around twenty three-ish, but how would they react when they found out she wasn't even eighteen yet?

And that when they had first met, she hadn't been eighteen then either.

"Kag? Do you want to go out for late night salty, greasy, fattening fast food?"

Kagome smiled and nodded. "You know my policy on anything deep fried, Sango."

"That I do. As much as I can afford, right?"

"Stress the you, I didn't bring my wallet." Kagome grinned deviously.

Sango snorted and Miroku cut in to offer to pay for them both.

Which, would ultimately be his downfall.

* * *

Kagome took the fire escape stairwell with a groan, wondering why it was so much harder to stay out late with friends wandering around downtown, than it was to fight for your life against unnamed evil until the wee hours of the morning. 

Her back was on fire, her knees were a steady ache, and the muscles in her legs were threatening a mutiny.

She opened the door of her apartment and reached out to touch the protective ward Miroku had given her years ago to keep unwanted guests from her living space.

She kicked off her shoes and pulled off her long-sleeved shirt so she was in just her tanktop and jeans and left them where they fell.

"Buyo, you fatass cat, come rub my back." If only cats had opposable thumbs and lost the bitchy, "holier than thou" attitude they would be decent pets.

She pulled her wrist sheath off by pulling the velcro apart and tossed it on the kitchen table, followed by the one on her thigh and then she headed into the living room, wanting to take the dubious protecting of her enormous cat to bed with her.

Her heart leapt up into her throat when she padded barefoot into the tiny living room and saw them.

Them being three men of the undead persuasion lounging around her cramped living room.

In her apartment.

The anger that came with that was minuscule compared to the fear that engulfed her like wildfire.

"Fuck." She managed, hoarsely.

She ran for the door, nearly falling with the sharpness of her turn.

An arm made of steel appeared out of nowhere and she managed to clothesline herself off of it, catching herself mid-chest and landing flat on her ass.

"I didn't think that would work." She struggled to breathe around her fear and the painful impact on her ribs and lungs.

Low laughter drew her attention back to the matter at hand.

The matter being that she was very, very,_ very _screwed.

* * *


	3. Helpless

AN: First, because I said I would, and she can't come out unscathed, I'm going to embarrass Eartha. -evil grins-

I LOVE YOU EARTHA! You rock!

She's my rock at The only person who reads everything I write and gives me supportive comments. (Not that no one else has) But she's so cute!!So, everyone wander over to her end of Fanfiction and read her AMAZING but under-reviewed fic ---------- I'm serious, it's really good, but it's one of those fics that gets hidden away.

There's a disclaimer here somewhere, but I seem to have misplaced it. You know how it goes.

****

Personal space...--

Kagome was terrified. No sense in pretending.

Vampires could smell fear, they fed off it, not to mention the very noticeable sounds, smells and signals her body scent out that they picked out like the predators they were.

Her heart was beating so fast she was surprised it hadn't already burst out of her chest.

"Stop your panting bitch, we're not here to hurt you, or we would have torn you apart the second you entered the door."

"Mm, yeah. Excuse my skepticism." Kagome's fingers bumped the now chilled skin of her wrist and she cursed violently, although mentally.

__

'All my silver's lying on the kitchen table. Fat lot of good it's going to do me there.'

A throaty chuckle.

"She's fiery. I'm still not sure this is who we're looking for. She's fucking_ tiny_."

Kagome's head shot up and she snorted, trying not to panic when intensely blue eyes met hers, and the vampires pupils expanded suddenly, drawing her into their inky depths.

"Fuck you." That felt good. If the vampire thought she was going to fall for his mind tricks he had another thing coming. You didn't survive long around vampires if you went that easily into their mindplay.

"Watch it bitch." A snarl revealed substantial fangs.

Shit, he had already gone into feed-mode.

She rolled onto her feet fluidly, pleased that she had pushed away the shaking that had threatened her a moment ago.

"Get out of _MY APARTMENT_!"

Two of the men bristled at her tone and posture and growled at her. The other only folded himself into her couch and it was then that she noticed disconnectedly that he was petting her cat.

__

Ouch, Buyo. The betrayal.

Why was she thinking about the damn cat when she was about to be mauled?

She spread her legs so she could move faster and set her weight on the balls of her feet. She had no knives, but she was going to go down fighting.

"Enough. You're as bad as she is. We're not here for a fight darling. We're here to talk shop."

She threw a look to the figure resting in total comfort on _her_ damn couch, eliciting purrs from _her _damn cat. Darling, her ass.

She kept her position.

"You talk, I'll look for something sharp."

He threw back his head and laughed suddenly, and she looked at him, really _looked_ at him.

Damn, he was good looking.

That wasn't unusual for a vampire though, they tended to be choosy about who they let into the ranks, and then they used their blood and mind tricks to look even prettier.

And he was a vampire. Creature of the night, fed on helpless innocents, could tear you to shreds with their hands and teeth, and drive you insane with a well-directed thought if you were susceptible.

But a girl couldn't be faulted for looking.

He was just this side of tall, just missing the inch or two that would make him more than average height. And he was slender, but she could tell he had definite muscle definition.

Nice, not over-built.

He was pale, but that was part of the job description when you joined the ranks of the undead. Amber eyes cut through the dimly-lit living room, such an unusual colouring. Like diluted sunlight. His hair was incredibly long, but he suited it, and that wasn't what was the most unusual.

His hair was white touched with silver.

Silver and gold. Nice imagery.

His face was slightly boyish, stubborn to a fault, but it had an intensity set right into his features that made it really attractive.

Wild.

He was wearing jeans, nicely fitting jeans, and a simple gray short sleeved shirt.

Kagome pulled herself back with a growl.

She hadn't even caught the subtlety of his gentle tugging at her mind.

Bastard was drawing her in just enough so that she was focusing on him, only him.

She crossed her hands over her chest briefly, wishing she was in more than a tank top. She always felt naked without layers. Then she dropped her hands, knowing that if she was attacked it wasn't the best position to be in.

"Try any more of that crap and I'm going to be very unwilling to listen to your proposal."

It was always a proposal. She'd heard it before, vampires thought that if they promised not to kill her, and possibly offer her some monetary compensation, she'd stop killing them. They occasionally offered her eternal life for her oath that she would leave Oblivion and pretend they didn't exist.

Yep, she killed them because she was poor and mortal. Give her a little money, make her into a walking corpse and she'd be happy enough not to kill their kind.

Idiots.

He bent his attention back to the very fat gray cat wheezing in his lap and ran a claw gently under Buyo's chin. Buyo lapped it up.

"We have no proposition. Not in the way you're thinking, little bounty hunter. We come to give you time to prepare."

She rolled her eyes.

"Oh. This. Yeah, I'll start getting ready for the day of my demise. Prepare to meet my end and all that."

Vampires could be so melodramatic.

The tall vampire tossed his head back and grinned, blue eyes glinting with amusement.

"I could like you, human."

He then, very deliberately, licked his lips.

She shuddered and felt the ice water pool at the base of her spine.

Kagome tried very hard not to blush and turned her attention to trying to think of a way out of this, preferably without dying or crippling injury.

The other vampire at his shoulder, pale even for a vampire, looked at her with undisguised hate and no little bloodlust and then cast murky gray eyes on his companion.

"Finish up with the little bitch, Koga, and we'll leave."

She was getting mighty tired of being referred to as 'bitch'.

Koga, presumably, nodded and turned his disconcerting gaze back on her.

"My mistress wishes a meeting. She has been watching you for a time, and you've caught her attention, hunter."

"She's obsessed with you." The vampire didn't pull his gaze away from his attentions with her cat, letting Buyo chomp down on his finger with a grin.

__

'Silver and gold. Wait. Shut up.'

"Inuyasha. Watch it pet, or I'll tear out that offensive tongue of yours."

Inuyasha shrugged gracelessly and stretched his legs without dislodging Buyo.

"She'll kill him one day for his disrespect." The other vampire seemed perpetually angry, and somewhat crazed.

He was sallow, and overly gaunt. He didn't fit the typical vampire profile, but there were always a few seedy types that slipped through the filters. He turned his attention back to Kagome, his aura flaring briefly and causing his long black hair to stir in a phantom wind.

Her body was caught in a fine shiver, her abdomen clenched at the promise of dark violence in his eyes.

"Tell your mistress.." She licked her lips and tried to winced at the way her voice cut out. "To go fuck herself."

Which, in hindsight, _wasn't_ the smartest answer, but fear shorted out the communication between her mind and her mouth.

She wasn't brave, she was just very, very stupid.

The vampire leapt at her before she could register his even moving and she fell under his weight with a brief scream that was quickly ended as his weight crushed her chest.

He threw her arms up over her head and pinned her arms to the floor with enough strength to make her bones creak.

She gasped and blinked back tears. He brought his face right down to hers, face twisted in hate and just a little insanity.

His eyes had turned to gray fire with obsidian pupils. His fangs extended over his lips and drew blood as he bit at the air in front of face, missing her by bare slivers.

"Human bitch! You'd burn away in her presence, you worthless whore."

She flinched as he tore a fang into her cheek, and dragged it down her skin, it felt like fire against her cheek.

Panting, she tried to throw him off her by bucking her body and trying to bring her knees up. His grip, his weight on her was unshakable, though.

She was slick with a panicked sweat, her heart beating the frightened tempo of a small animal facing death at the teeth of a predator.

She looked to the other vampires, knowing that the creature on her was well past sanity, and was about to tear her to shreds.

They both stared at the fight before them intensely, Koga's face slightly touched with lust as he watched her writhe underneath his companion.

No help there.

She was going to die.

He seemed to realize the train of her thoughts and he leaned in close enough to her ear that his mouth brushed against her skin.

"You're helpless.."

And then he tugged a wrist to him, holding the other firmly crushed to the floor and ran his tongue over the delicate skin there when she didn't fight him.

Memories suddenly rushed over Kagome as she threw her head back and struggled to breathe under their painful weight.

__

Helpless...

Teeth tore into her wrist savagely and Kagome screamed, trying to pull herself under the wave of her past.

__

'No. Please.. No. I'm not--'

Fire, cold fire at her wrist, teeth slicing through veins and greedily lapping at the blood that pooled there.

__

Helpless...

"I'm not helpless.."

A throaty purr against her mangled forearm.

__

Completely helpless..

"I am **NOT** helpless you bastard!!"

And she reached for the pool within her that leapt to meet her, pulling as much of it as possible she let it consume her, feed on her fear and anger and take her over.

The vampire on her chest pulled back and stared at her in confusion for a moment before his bloodied mouth tightened in a faint grimace of surprise.

Kagome was past noticing, her body suddenly erupted in blue light and her eyes flashed a crystalline blue. She spasmed underneath him, once and with a scream he pulled his hands away from her wrists, staring at the faintly smoking angry pink skin on his palms. She lifted her torn right wrist and made a fist, then flicked her fingers at his chest.

The vampire managed a faint squeak and flew off her body and across the room, where he landed against the wall hard enough to break through plaster and wood. His head collapsed against his chest limply, and his skin crackling with faint blue energy.

Azure and golden eyes flicked over to the form still lying on the floor, chest rising and falling quickly, and then to the prone form half-embedded in the far wall in perfect synchronization.

Kagome blinked and cradled her bleeding arm to her chest while trying to breathe normally again.

She sat up before she was ready, and ignored the rush of nausea and motion sickness and stood carefully.

Walking cautiously over to the prone vampire, she stared at him for a long moment before she lifted her foot and brought it down on his chest with as much force as she could muster.

"I'm not helpless."

He wasn't listening, mostly because she had burned his heart to cinders in his chest.

She took a deep breath. Once, twice. Slightly better.

Turning back to the others in her living room and held one small hand palm facing up to the ceiling, the other palm out, towards them. Hopefully they wouldn't see past her careful deception.

She was pretending she could do something like that again.

"Get the hell outta my apartment."

Just wanted to clear one thing up..

Yes, Inuyasha calls Kagome 'darling.' This is ooc, yes, but if you read my note in the beginning, I warned you of complete and utter ooc-ness. Except maybe in Miroku's case. He's a perv through and through.

BUT: He isn't saying this as a term of endearment. He's saying it sarcastically, mostly to piss her off.

Thanks again Eartha, you're my new hero. .


	4. Pretty Boys With Sharp Teeth

A/N: Ahh... Inuyasha.. finally. -Grins-

Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Really. For serious.

* * *

Bad boy...--

* * *

Kagome was trembling very minutely.

Not good.

Soon she was going to pass out from all the energy she had expended. Not to mention the blood loss.

She could feel hot liquid trailing sluggishly from her wrist and twining down and around to drip off her fingers.

'I'm ruining my damn carpet!'

She wondered why she was concerned with her carpet when she was on the verge of collapsing in front of two very powerful bloodsuckers, all the while dripping appetizing life-blood all over herself.

It was probably due to the fact that she was semi-conscious.

Her wrist was full of broken razors that bit into muscles and nerve endings cruelly. She blocked the pain, willing it away until she could deal with it later. There was always a price though, for the usefulness of that particular bit of training. In blocking the pain now, she doubled it later.

Cerulean eyes lit up underneath dark brows and Kagome knew he knew what state she was in. He didn't have to know she had nothing left to fight with.

She reaffirmed her stance, fighting for balance, and held a hand in front of her threateningly. "I'll send you to join your friend if you don't start moving."

A bark of almost-laughterfrom Inuyasha."You don't have anything left _koibito."_

She growled at the endearment. Koibito. Beloved.

"Don't call me that." She warned, one hand fisting unconsciously.

He grinned, canines flashing. "What are you goin' to do if I keep at it?"

His image was starting to blur faintly around the edges, and faint specks of black were swimming across her vision. She took a deep breath and shook her head, trying to dispel the interference.

Golden eyes flashed with some indiscernible emotion and she steadied herself once more. "Koibito, you don't have much time left before you hit the carpet. Listen to me."

He was at Kagome's side before she took her next breath and she threw a fist out weakly, trying to push him back to a safe distance. He caught her limp fist and changed his grip so he was holding her by her forearm.

She panicked, waiting for his next move, but he seemed content to keep her arm. She realized suddenly that he was keeping her standing.

Kagome shot him a look of surprise and a very real smile crept onto his face and lit up his amber eyes. Her heart fluttered briefly before she growled inwardly and clamped down on her hormones.

"You-- This was a test. Naraku was sent because.. Well 'cause he was fuckin' insane. We knew you'd piss him off, although that wouldn't take much. You've got a razor tongue, and not enough intelligence to keep your mouth shut."

She glared at him, although the effect was ruined when she stumbled and would have fallen if not for his grip on her.

"Inuyasha forgot to mention that our mistress has had someone watching you at all times." Koga interrupted smugly.

Inuyasha ran a claw along the pale skin of her arm, then pressed the pad of his thumb against the white ridge of a scar on her wrist. She shuddered and inhaled sharply.

"Don't." She bit out, her voice husky with exhaustion and fear.

Inuyasha pulled back. "My Mistress will probably punish you for killin' crazy over there."

Kagome's mind was sluggish, but she grasped at a thread of thought finally. "I thought I was just being tested."

Koga moved at the periphery of her sight and she snapped her head to the right to look at him. His tall form was stalking around her, movements predatory, cerulean eyes flicking over her figure from every direction.

She hissed, the tip of her tongue between her teeth and gave him the dirtiest look she could pull off while her legs shook and nearly gave out.

"Keep your eyes off her filth. She's not yours." Inuyasha rumbled warningly, sending small shockwaves of vibration through Kagome's skin.

Koga's face twisted briefly and he bared his teeth at Inuyasha, eyes flashing with promise, but pulled back slightly, although he let his eyes wander repeatedly over the from her neck to her chest with an arrogant smirk.

"You were being tested, lover. We gave you a suitable opponent, difficult circumstances, no weapons, so we could accurately test your abilities. Although you managed to shock thefuck out of us with the fireworks. I thought you'd just kick his ass, you know.. Physically."

She managed a smile at that, tilting her chin up proudly and tossing her raven braid back.

'Wait. Lover? BASTARD!'

His thumb swiped over her wrist again so lightly she barely felt it, and he gave her a lopsided 'I couldn't help it' smirk.

Kagome frowned and tucked her bloody wrist against her denim-clad hip, trying to staunch the blood flow while he gave her his pretty speech.

"You surprised us. Although we were aware of a faint magical _something_, our resources told us it wasn't anything you could tap into." Koga offered from the sidelines.

DidInuyasha look somewhat proud, or was that just her?

Golden eyes flashed definitely, and she caught the faint strain of pride again, almost as if it was vibrating in the air between them.

"We're tobring you to her tomorrow night. Until then, I'm to stay the night to make sure you don't try and run."

This seemed to be news to Koga, because he started and began to growl at Inuyasha.

"That wasn't part of the plan, you bastard." He rasped, looking blackly dangerous.

Inuyasha's mouth twisted in a smirk and he crushed Kagome against the solid warmth of his chest suddenly, ignoring her vehement protests. "Sure it was. You just aren't that high in the group to be privvy to all the discussions. Dumb fuck."

"Fuck you, high enough in the group. You're a pet Inuyasha, not a fucking master."

Inuyasha shrugged and ran his hand possessively over Kagome's back. She caught the flash of anger in his eyes just before she dug her fingers into the sensitive flesh in the hollow of his throat.

He yelped, caught by surprise and pushed her away.

Kagome lost her balance and hit the carpet hard enough to bruise her tailbone.

Inuyasha glared down at her, although a corner of his mouth twitched suspiciously.

"Don't. Touch. Me. Like. That. Again."Kagome enunciated angrily.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes against her better judgement, trying to get rid of the lightheaded feeling she had. She opened them again quickly, not willing to close her eyes on them for too long.

Both were studying her intently, and it made her flesh crawl.

Kaghad a feeling that they had both decided to lay claim to her, and that it was going to get her into a lot of trouble.

Koga's gaze danced down along her body to the thickening pool of blood coating her from mid-wrist down. She pulled her hand behind her, hiding it from his sight. She felt safer when she wasn't obviously tempting him.

Kagome let her gaze fall back to Inuyasha, dizzily waiting for the rest so she could crawl to her medicine cabinet, patch herself up and collapse into bed.

'I think I'll sleep with as much silver as I can get my hands on. Wait, he said he wasn't leaving tonight. Can I trust him not to tear my throat open while I sleep?'

The truth was, though, that he could tear her throat out right now if he wanted to, and there was very little she could do about it. She was going to have to go ahead with this little farce, and trust in the authority his mistress exerted over him to keep him from her.

'Do I have to set up the couch for him? Sheets and stuff?'

Kagome wondered why the thought of having a guy spend the night in her apartment was suddenly so much more terrifying than the thought of trying to sleep with a vampire in her apartment.

She giggled slightly at her immaturity and didn't catch the look on Inuyasha's face.

"Alright. Out. She's had enough." He gestured vaguely in the general direction of the door and looked pointedly at Koga.

"Fuck you. I'm staying. How do I know you won't turn her the minute I leave, turn her into a plaything?" Koga snapped, radiating anger.

Kagome's head shot up at that, and she stared in sudden terror at Inuyasha, straining to hear his answer.

He shot her a look and rolled his eyes.

"Stop your quiverin' bitch, I won't touch you. One, I find the whole idea very disturbing. Two, I'm not a total fuckin' idiot. I'd be tortured and then slowly killed if I laid a finger on you that my mistress didn't like." Inuyasha explained, giving her a dirty look, like she had offended him.

For some reason that did reassure her. She shrugged tiredly.

Her eyes drifted close, and when she opened them again, it was to the sound of her door slamming.

Inuyasha had his back to her, his posture so rigid she could see the muscles knotting under his shirt. She suddenly wanted to run her fingers through the silk of his long silvered white hair, just to feel the texture.

She blamed it on the blood loss.

He turned suddenly, eyes flashing, and looked at her. His face went carefully blank when he noticed she was awake and alert and he knelt in front of her smoothly, folding himself into a crouch.

Kagome was suddenly terrified that all his earlier words had been a lie and she shifted back from him until her back met the wall. Her heart had picked up a quick drumming tempo.

He growled at her, and held a hand out. "Give me your wrist."

She shook her head, loose tendrils of her hair whipping her in the face, and swallowed thickly. He was going to turn her, or kill her, or maybe just sate his hunger for her blood.

His pupils widened slightly, drawing her in easily in her weakened state and tugged her wrist onto his knees. Her breathing quickened and she struggled against the thick feeling of him holding her body still.

"Koi, calm down! Fuck. I'm just trying to--" Inuyasha brought his thumb up to his mouth and tore the fleshy pad open with his teeth. Blood immediately welled thickly to the surface and he ran his thumb over the torn flesh and muscle of her wrist, smearing crimson across the wound until their blood mixed together. "Fix your damn wound before you bleed out.

'What the hell was he doing? How is mixing bodily fluids going to fix anything?'

She hissed at the sudden flare of pain from her wrist as she stopped blocking the pain, and his touch burned like acid when it brushed the wound.

"Ah.." She whimpered.

Kaglost her confusion at his actions in a wave of pain.

He frowned and finally pulled his amber gaze away from her, freeing her from the binding he had put her under and pulled her toward him, wrapping her arms around his neck and sliding an arm beneath her shoulders and another behind her knees. He heaved her up into his arms and got to his feet nimbly, with no effort, and grinned wickedly down at her when she tensed.

"Where's the trust, hunter? It's starting to hurt."

"Good." It was less than effective though, as she was clenching her teeth against the pain vibrating up her arm.

"S'okay. I'll fix you up." He stated, suddenly indifferent.

Kagome shot him a glance.

"Koi? Where's the bathroom?" He asked after a minute of uncomfortable silence.

She snorted then, amused by the absolute mundane-ness of that question. She pointed vaguely with her good arm. "S'not far. My apartment s'tiny."

Shit, her words were slurring. She was teetering on the precipice. She very badly wanted to tell Inuyasha to go fuck himself and let her walk on her own, that she could manage. Unfortunately she no longer had the ability for coherent speech.

That, and they both knew that she could no more support herself on her own two feet at this point than she could fly.

He managed to find the bathroom, and pushed the door open with a bare foot, and turned slightly sideways to get them both through the door. Her bathroom was small, plain and basically undecorated. Like the rest of her apartment.

It was a pale gray, with the required tub, toilet and sink. Above the sink was a medicine cabinet, which was stuffed with so many medicinal, magical, not to mention feminine products and paraphernalia that she could no longer close the mirrored door completely.

The only luxury items in her bathroom were dozens of scented candles littering the counter, the tub rim, and a little shelf above the toilet. That, and the many hygiene products she left scattered everywhere. She had a slight obsession for shampoos, soaps, deodorants, and the like.

Hey, you would too if you came home night after night coated with blood, gore, sweat, and city grime.

Inuyasha set her on her feet, supporting her with one arm and set the toilet seat down. She no longer pretended she didn't need his help and put all her weight in his court shamelessly.

Might as well take advantage of his superhuman strength, right?

He pushed her gently down on the toilet seat.

"Gauze?"

"Med cabinet." Kagome pointed, her arm quivering with the effort of lifting it.

He nodded and rifled through the mess of the overstocked supplies cabinet. She flushed when she remembered the volume of personal--

_'Ahem.. Girly.' _She amended silently.

--Items she had jammed in there. But he didn't seem particularly embarrassed, so she tried to let it go. Besides, she knew he could feel the heat radiating off of her as the blood rushed to her face, and he really didn't need any more fodder. He was already hitting all of her buttons.

"I've got.. Magical thingmies too. Speed up healing." Ouch. Way to form a coherent sentence Kagome. Her eyelids fluttered, and it was a struggle to keep them open.

"You don't need 'em." He snapped, haughtily.

He came back with a massive roll of gauze and sat on his haunches in front of her and gestured for her to give him her injured wrist.

She hesitated a second before doing so.

'Ah hell. It's not as if he had a hard time getting it before.'

Part of her whispered something about the wisdom of dangling the proverbial carrot in front of a vampire, but she shrugged it off. If Inuyasha wasn't in control of his urges, he would have jumped her long before.

He lifted her arm gently and began to wound the gauze firmly over the wound. She winced. It felt like someone was pouring hot lead up her veins all the way to her shoulder. It was like when you hit your funny bone, only a hundred times worse.

'Stop being a wimp. You've gone through worse.'

Kagome tried to focus on something other than the shockwaves of pain running up her arm and managed to grit out;

"Why won't I need the healing papers?" She interrupted his handiwork unthinkingly.

He looked up at her, messy bits of bang falling into his eye. She couldn't help it, she brushed them out of his eyes. Then she turned a pretty shade of pink.

"Sorry." She squeaked, mortified at her loss of control.

He shrugged, _were his cheeks pink?,_and went back to her question. "I thought you'd know. My blood'll heal you up nicely, koi, better than a chancy healing spell even, and there isn't any of the nasty reprocussions that come with the papers."

Inuyasha knew quite a bit about magic then. Healing papers weren't completely reliable, as they took energy from the recipient to fuel the magic, and they could only pull until a set limit, at which point it was too much. So if you had a particularly nasty wound, and had bled out enough, the spells could only take a small bit of energy before the safeguard kicked in and shut them down. So the healing stopped then. And the spells were notoriously painful. As they burned away infection and forcibly knit everything back into place, it was like having someone use staples and a hot glue gun to fix a flesh wound.

"Besides, my blood'll make it so that you don't scar. I'm sure you don't need a memory of that bastard tearing into you printed on your flesh." His gaze flicked up to the visible scarring on her neck and then back to the task at hand as if he couldn't help it.

She flushed and clenched her fist suddenly, forgetting what it would do to the pain in her wrist and she squeaked at the rush of fire it caused.

Inuyasha gave her a look, and then used a bit of tape to secure the gauze and stood back. "There."

Kagome nodded, and tucked the wrist against her abdomen. Suddenly she hated him. Hated him for looking at her scars, for helping her just because he was ordered to, for being in her space, for being a vampire.

She pressed a hand to the faint ripple of scarring on her neck and looked at the floor, trying to control her anger. It made her more alert, pulled her out of the sleepy stupor she had been in. She stood shakily, ignoring his warning growl and managed to make it, albeit gasping and wobbly-legged, out of the bathroom and turn into her bedroom just to the left of the bathroom.

Kagome turned to slam the door on him, when she realized he already had a foot in the threshold.

'The bastard thinks he's coming in!'

She hissed at him, feeling slightly silly, but it was her knee-jerk reaction when she felt threatened.

"Out!" Kag demanded angrily.

He shook his head and stepped forward until their chests were nearly touching. She took a step back out of instinct and realized her mistake as it gave him more room to come in.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" She shrieked, panicking.

"I think I'm comin' in to sleep here." He shrugged nonchalantly.

She flushed at the implications and shook her head violently. "No, you're not! Pervert!"

Inuyasha smirked, his fangs visible in the dark of her bedroom.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Koibito. I'll sleep on the floor. But I was given very specific orders not to let you out of my sight." His voice was low and rumbly. She could almost feel the way his chest vibrated in the soles of her feet.

Kagome glared at him for a long moment then stomped her foot weakly.

"Fine!" She tore a pillow off her bed and tossed it at him, followed quickly by her top quilt. He caught both easily, and dumped them on the floor next to her bed.

"You have to leave so I can change."

He smirked and raised a brow meaningfully. Then he shook his head, which sent his hair whipping around him. "Nope."

She gave him the dirtiest look she had in her repertoire.

"I can turn around." He offered as an afterthought.

Kagome snorted. "Yeah right."

He shrugged artlessly. "Your choice."

She bit her lip. She really didn't want to have to sleep in bloody jeans, her bra and tank top.

"Fine. Turn around. If you look.." She trailed off warningly.

"Scout's honour." He promised.

She waited until he had turned his back before she went to her drawers and pulled out a simple short sleeved shirt decided to stick with just her underwear. She was a little iffy on sleeping in her normal attire, but she couldn't sleep in anything else, and it was damn hot trying to sleep through the day in the summer. She would just make sure she was well covered by her thin quilt.

Kagome turned her back on him and pulled off her top quickly, with shaky hands, aware that she was now half naked with a man less than a foot away.

Oh yes, painfully aware.

She quickly discarded her bra, throwing it into the hamper and tugging on the shirt as fast as she could. She pulled her hair out of the confines of the braid and ran her fingers through it briefly before she shimmied out of her blood-encrusted jeans.

"Might as well toss these. That's never coming out."

She turned to toss the jeans in the corner, where she would remember to throw them out in the morning. They hit the floor just as she caught sight of Inuyasha, his cheeks flushed slightly, as he stared, apparently having seen the whole show.

She squeaked and threw herself on her bed, tugging the sheets to her chin and looked at him with death in her eyes. "You.. You. I'm going to kill you."

Inuyasha shrugged. "Alright. Night Koi."

And then he dropped himself onto the floor, resting his back against the wall and looking up at the ceiling.

Apparently he wasn't going to sleep anytime soon.

She groaned and tossed herself onto her side, the blankets knotted tightly around her up to her neck and swore she was never going to fall asleep with him in her room.

Her body apparently had very different ideas and she passed out within no more than three seconds.


	5. Phobias

A/N: You may have noticed (if you've read this before) that I've made some minor changes… Corrected spelling mistakes, spiffed some things up a bit… Hopefully it's better this time 'round.

* * *

Fears...--

* * *

Inuyasha had left Kagome, her breathing a soft sighing in the quiet bedroom, still fast asleep, wrapped tightly in silk sheets and a thin quilt comforter. He was up to absolutely no good, snooping without a trace of shame around her apartment before he arrived at the good stuff.

He picked up the frilly fabric with a sigh of relief mingled with slight embarassment that he was touching her.. unmentionables.

But he had been seriously starting to worry that Kagome had no sense of feminity in her, after her seemingly endless parade of jeans, denim shorts, and layers upon layers even in the summer heat. In the weeks he had been watching her, she had not once gone out in anything vaguely feminine, or sexy.

But, apparently she had enough girl in her to wear panties.

Hesmirked in thankfulness for the pink lacy underwear, and dangled them from two fingers, feeling a thrum of appreciation run through him.

She had an endless supply of clean, folded underwear lying on top of her dryer, along with her less attractive outerwear.

She needed to take it a step further, start wearing some remotely feminine stuff.

Maybe he'd bring it up to her. The girl needed to figure out that she had a body underneath her many layers.

Even her panties were still on the modest side.

So, he'd mention it.

If he didn't jump her and tap that delicate, pale blue vein that pulsed on the pale perfection of her throat.

Damn.

But no, his subconcious was chortling at him. He knew that wasn't going to happen. First, he wasn't stupid enough to touch anything that belonged to his mistress. And no matter what the spunky hunter thought, she belonged body, mind and soul to the lady vampire of the city. She had since she'd brought herself to the fore, and drawn every supernatural eye within the city to her.

The little bitch didn't know it yet, but there was something very... appetizing about her, and it had very little to do with the fact that she was topping the "to kill" list of every bloodthirsty denizen of the city.

She absolutely glowed to anyone who had the eye to see.

And secondly, he didn't feed on humans. Not because he was one of the freaks who had visions of sunshine, rainbows, and puppies, and harmony between humans and the freaks that wandered the city, but because Inuyasha wasn't going to fall prey to the bloodlust that many of his kin suffered. A vampire lost himself in the desire for the hunt, for the feeding, and if you weren't killed by one of the bounty hunters, or another of your kin, then you could lose your mind to desire.

Avoid the major temptations, feeding on live prey, sex, and the other sins his kin induldged in, and he wouldn't fall. That was the plan anyway.

So, he went to the underground bloodbanks, like the aptly named Crimson, for his meals. Crimson and the other banks had been started by the aforementioned rainbows/sunshine/puppies human lovers.

That didn't mean he wouldn't kill the little bitch all the same, once his mistress tired of her. He had to, although the desire to do it left him weak-kneed, because she was already drawing him in just as firmly as his mistress. He just wouldn't feed on her.

Inuyasha growled low in his chest. That would be... hard.

There was something about her that trapped you. It was driving him to obsession.

Not a place he wanted to be. So he'd have to kill her before it became full-fledged.

It'd be an amazing challenge. She was the best there was, and killing her would be the first time he'd had a real challenge in such a long time.

That hunter... He was delighted that she hadn't caught the faint strains of power that was his shielding. He'd worried that she'd be able to see through his disguise, to see that he wasn't a weak, blood-tainted vampire.

He'd had to up the strength of his everyday _"don't see me"_ shielding last night until he was almost shaking with effort, absolutely paranoid that she would somehow be able to see through it. Inuyasha had worked very hard to be kept out of the power struggles of the city's elders, to be outed by a bounty hunter with a keen sixth sense and a little power.

Besides, she thought she could kill him if she needed to, which was all that kept her from actually trying. She'd trust him for now, convinced she could handle him later.

In the meantime...

He dropped the underwear back into the pile and went to wake the hunter up. He needed to get her ready. He almost dreaded this part.

Her testing wasn't over.

And he felt the anger creeping up his spine with a dark growl, knowing that this was just as much a test for him. He hated being used as a pawn. It made him want to break things.

* * *

Kagome woke to a feather light touch stroking over the bridge of her nose. She crinkled it briefly and tried to pull away, back into the comfort of sleep.

"Up now Koishii. Come on." Someone ordered softly.

Her eyes opened slowly, focusing on the face above her without really seeing it. She smiled briefly, responding to the soft touch without thinking.

Then her mind actually kicked in. She flushed, her whole body tingling with acute embarrassment.

She shoved at the body above her, trying to throw him off of the bed. Because he was straddling her, his body bare inched from hers.

"Get off you pervert!!" Her voice came out sounding all of seven, which deepened her blush. She was sure she had gone a delightful shade of firetruck, or perhaps even overripe tomato, red.

Trying to move him was like trying to tip a house over. Hesmirked down at her, taking great joy in her embarrassment. It contrasted with his slightly flushed cheeks.

She wondered for a brief moment at the complete contradictions in his behaviour, sometimes he seemed downright shy, and then he'd be straddling her...

She couldn't get her legs, or her right arm up to do anything, because they were pinnioned by her covers, which were trapped under Inuyasha's hands and knees.

She did however have one hand free.

Being a bounty hunter with all the training that comes with the job was fun sometimes. She slammed a knuckle into the hollow behind his ear, and then caught the faint line of a thick tendon in his neck. She squeezed it with a sadistic sort of pleasure.

His face twisted in slight pain, but he didn't move, only growled at her.

Kagome frowned."I said get the hell off of me!!"

A hand caught hers, grip tight enough to force her bones to grind together and separate. She exhaled sharply through her nose.

"Say uncle, Koi." He demanded softly.

"_Excuse_ me?" She managed, blinking in shock.

A grin that was all teeth, and a flash of golden eyes showed his amusement, but she saw the anger beneath it.

She was reeling slightly in confusion.

'Wha--?'

She somehow caught the thread of what was running through his tense frame. It was, for some reason, very important that she submit to him.

Her ebony brows furrowed in confusion.

"Koi. Now." He demanded warningly.

Her lips drew into a sharp line.

"Aunt." She was a smartass through and through. It was hard to change your nature.

He shook his head and increased the strength of his grip just slightly. Her mouth opened involuntarily, but she managed to hold back the gasp.

Her knuckles were grinding together, the pressure intensely uncomfortable. It was just this side of unbearable. "_Uhn._"

Another faint increase in the force of his squeezing. His eyes were searching her face intently, his face still set in a mask of amusement, but she saw through it now. It was just a mask.

She didn't understand.. But if she didn't give, her hand was going to give in to the pressure on it, and it just wasn't worth her pride to have her hand reduced to a pulp of ground bone, muscle, tendon and flesh.

"_Ah!_ I give!" Her voice was a breathy gasp.

His hand was suddenly loose on hers, his thumb running over her pale skin softly.

"Good girl." He offered, sounding almost mad.

She swallowed thickly, actually vibrating with a mixture of potent emotion. She was...

Angry.

Confused.

Embarrassed.

Frightened.

Some things she couldn't even identify.

He got off of her, legs swinging up and over her body, and stood beside her bed. "Time to get up, Koi."

His face was light again, but she turned away from him, looking at the wall for a long moment.

One hand rose to glide up her sheets and underneath her pillow. She clutched at the knife there in desperate need for comfort suddenly.

"Now, lover. _Please_." He put power into the words, lacing them with command, and she was surprised to find her body responding.

She was usually almost immune to a vampire's words of power.

She looked to him, and he nodded approvingly.

Kagome's abdomen spasmed as her legs slid over the side of the bed, covers strewn messily over her lap.

"It's eight. We leave in a couple of hours. You need to get ready."

She nodded, disgusted with how she was almost jumping to meet his pleasure. She wasn't sure, but she thought something very important had transpired here.

Damned if she knew what.

But until she figured out, she wasn't going to make the vampire angry.

He needed... watching.

Her back almost arched with displeasure, her own body rebelling against her sudden, completely reluctant, obedience.

'Yeah. I know. This sucks. But do I have any choice?'

She hoped he was tasting how much she hated him right now.

She was going to tear his fucking heart out and make him eat it.

"I hate him.. I hate him.. I HATE him..." She whimpered, fisting her hands in almost painful frustration.

The water pouring out of the shower head in rushing torrents was so hot it had turned her skin a rosy pink. "Oh god, yes."

Kagome turned, pulled her sopping hair off her back, and let the water massage the knots out of her shoulders.

She personally thought that showers were only effective if they were scalding hot, and lasted longer than half an hour.

Sure, she ended up paying an ungodly amount for it on top of her rent, but screw it, she got the crap beaten out of her on a bad night, and pulled most of the muscles in her body on a good one, and so if she wanted hot water, she was going to damn well have hot water.

She sighed, and looked pulled her arm up through curtains of steam and mist, and studied her wrist once more in the dim light of the bathroom.

Her wrist was pale, with faint lines of scum from the tape that had held the gauze down, and she had pulled a good amount of hair and skin out trying to get the bandages off, but her wrist...

It was whole. Perfect.

You wouldn't even know she had ever had her wrist shredded just the night before.

Now, Kagome, even in her line of work, didn't profess to know everything there was about vampires, but she was totally thrown by this little bit of new information.

She knew they had self-regeneration, healing, skills that were unmatched, but that they could heal the living with a little bit of blood?

That was a very big secret...

She stroked a finger gently over the visible veins and tendons in her wrist, her mind tripping over itself trying to figure out Inuyasha's motives for letting her in on what had to be an enormous secret.

"And why would you tell a vampire hunter, mmm?" Why did he think she wasn't going to tell the world? If it got out that a vampire's blood had healing derivitives...

Kagome sighed, and ran her eyes over the perfection of her wrist, letting her gaze drift absently up to the inner crook of her arm.

Her mouth fell open in shock, her breath catching in her chest sharply, as her mind processed what she was seeing.

Or rather, not seeing.

"Oh.. My.."

She nearly burst into tears, only a savage clamp-down on her emotions saved her from hysterics in that moment.

She still half collapsed, her left side and hip pressed against the cool, damp, shower tile for support as she turned her arm this way and that, her stormy ocean eyes gone almost crystal blue with shock as she searched her skin.

The scars that had bisected her inner arm, right over the soft line that marked the crook of her arm, were completely gone.

Not faded. Gone.

No magics removed scars, she knew. She had tried forever to remove, or even minimize the many scars she had on her body, to hide the awful memories jaggedly marking her flesh. Finally she had given up, trying to accept the fact that she would forever be branded with the reminders of her past.

And now... Oh god.. Now one of them was gone forever, erased like it had never been.

Her fingers ran wondrously over her soft skin, her teeth almost chattering in shock.

'Does that mean...?'

Her hands flew to the other patches of scarring, flying over her body to see if they, too, were gone, her heart almost bursting with hope that she could be whole again.

Her fingers brushed over her back and sides of her neck, just over the top of her collarbone on the left, to her right wrist, to her left upper thigh, her abdomen, the middle of her back..

Kagome pressed her cheek firmly against the damp tile, her heart a dead weight in her chest, shutting her eyes against the renewal of fresh hurt in her soul.

They were all still there. Still showing the world her secrets, telling all who knew how to read the map of scars, of the darkness that haunted her past. And her dreams.

She bit her lip and cursed at the stinging in her eyes and sinuses.

'Don't cry.. It's nothing new. You've been scarred for a long time. Be happy that one of them has gone forever. Stop the self-pity act.'

"And find out what the vampire wants in exchange for his little miracle. Nothing's free."

She nodded, to herself, shut off the taps with trembling hands and squeezed the water out of the sodden mass of her raven hair before reaching for a towel and stepping out of the shower.

* * *

Inuyasha had been sitting in on Kagome's cream couch for the past half hour, steadily cursing at the amount of time the hunter was taking in the shower.

"Hell." He swore vehemently.

How could she take so long when she didn't seem to give a rat's ass about her appearance?

She was naturally very, very pretty, with that slightly toussled look that was very appealing, but she covered herself up in layers of boyish clothing and did nothing in the way of makeup or hair, except for chapstick as far as he could tell.

Even her scent was completely her own, no perfumes, only the subtle smell of deodorant, organic oaps, moisturizer, and her own natural scent like clean rain and faint vanilla.

So, why was she taking so damn long?!

He finally heard the shower shut off, followed by the taps being turned on and off, and finally she was coming out of the bathroom.

After another few minutes she came into the living room.

She was dressed in a two tank tops, a light pink one layered over a white one, and then wore a each long sleeved light knit sweater that hung loose over one shoulder and was riddled with holes. She had a pair of baggy, shapeless jeans that would have slid right off her small hips if she hadn't threaded the belt loops with a silk scarf she was using as a belt.

Her hair was in a messy, loose ponytail, messy bits hanging in her left eye, and little droplets of water fell down on her chest, back and shoulders from her still wet hair.

He cast a disgusted eye over her, and snorted in disapproval. "That's not quite what I had in mind when I told you to dress nicely for tonight.

She glared at him and pulled at her sweater. "Stuff it! This is me dressed nicely. What's wrong with this?"

He stared at her, openmouthed, in disbelief. "You're joking right?" He groaned. "Oh God, you're not. I've seen what you wear everyday."

"And what's that supposed to mean." She put a fist on her hip and cocked her head, tossing her long, heavy ponytail over her shoulder as she did.

"You're hopeless. Absolutely hopeless. Why do you do that to yourself?" Inuyasha stood up, folding his arms over his chest, and leaned against the armrest to look down at her.

"Excuse me? Just because I don't wear clothes that leave nothing to the imagination, somehow I've committed a fashion crime?"

"Yes."

"Ugh. You're so very male."

"And you're so very un-feminine."

"Kiss my ass! Let's just go, I'm not going to go over the dress-code for being dragged unwillingly to my possible death." There went her earlier meekness. Apparently she hadn't been frightened of him long enough to curb her tongue.

Heshrugged and lead the way out of her apartment. "We'll take my car, as I haven't seen you with a car yet."

Kagome was rigid with some hidden tension, and her eyes were somewhat shadowed, but she didn't let him in on what was bothering her. Instead, she massaged her arm through her sweater and gave him a distracted look.

"Please, stop reminding me of the fact that you've been stalking me. You have a car? I didn't know vampires drove." She shot at him, rapid fire, almost as if she were distracting him...

He blinked. How did she manage to continually hit so many unconnected subjects in one sentence?

She reminded him of a teenager. And it made him feel very, very old.

"Bitch, pick on topic and stick with it. Yes, I have a car. No, most vampires don't drive, but I happen to think we need to get with the times. For a bounty hunter, you don't know shit about vampires."

She shrugged and danced down the metal steps with practiced ease, skipping every second step.

"I don't just do vampires. But, your kin are pretty careful about keeping their secrets." She gave him a curious look from the bottom of the stairs, and then raised an eyebrow when he took several deep breaths before wrapping his hand around the stair rail so tight that his knuckles turned white and he began to walk, stiltedly down the stairs.

"What are you-- Are you afraid of heights?!" Her mouth was very slowly twitching into a smile, her eyes sparkling with amusement.

He rose an eyebrow dangerously. "No." He enunciated the word so there could be no mistake.

"You are!" She cried, surprise evident in her voice.

He caught sight of the open space between the step and clung to the railing, glaring down at the snickering hunter below him.

She had the grace to turn her snicker into a cough, even if it was a pathetic cover.

"I am _not_ afraid of heights. I'm just.. Wary.. Of.. Them." He managed.

She snorted. "Why? I mean, you wouldn't die if you fell, so why are you afraid of them."

"Shut up, bitch." He made another shaky step down the fire escape, determined to make it down with some measure of pride intact.

"What happened to darling, lover, koibito? Hmm?"

"I believe I told you to shut up. You need to learn some obedience." He gasped a deep lungful of air and concentrated on staring on his hand on the railing, and not looking down.

Even so, he felt her go stiff at the mention of obedience. He heard her march a few steps away, then come back almost immediately and take one step up the stairs.

"That shit you pulled on me, upstairs, earlier? Was that you trying to make me obedient?" Her voice was completely void of tone, it was enough to make him look at her face in surprise.

She was staring at him, and her blank expression sent off alarm bells inside him. He shrugged them away, the hunter posed no danger to him.

"Yes?" He offered cautiously.

"No, I don't think you were." She very carefully put a hand on the railing on her end of the stairs and looked at him with a sudden, dark knowledge. "I don't think that was your little power play. Why am I supposed to be afraid of you?"

He swallowed thickly, trying to figure out what she was doing, and took another tense step down, foot searching for the next step. He took a shuddery breath when he managed it.

"I don't know what you're talking about." He evaded, looking away.

He felt, more than saw, her nod. "Alright then."

The vibration of her hand clamping down firmly on the shaky bar. He looked at her in a panic.

Was she going to do what he thought she was going to do?

She looked at him, and seemed slightly sad, but as he watched, all awareness flowed out of her pale eyes, and she seemed disconnected.

Her left hand punched, in an open fist, palm first, into the rickety bar, and he felt the supports give out slightly.

Inuyasha took a deep, shuddery breath and shut his eyes tight. "What-- What are you doing?!"

"Why does your mistress want me to be afraid of you, Inuyasha?" She asked softly.

He shook his head, pale silver hair curtaining his face.

'The little bitch! She's torturing me!'

She smacked her palm into the bar again, the whole frame shuddering underneath Inuyasha's tight grip. A few more, and the rusty steel was going to collapse. He couldn't let go of the bar to shimmy over to the wall, and he couldn't move down the steps.

"You're ruining your own stairs, idiot!" He called hoarsely.

"It's not the only set, and I can get them fixed. Tell me, Inuyasha. I'm not playing mind games anymore. I got tired of those a very long time ago. I'm still tired." He squeezed his eyes and took another shaky breath, trying to steady his knees. He wrapped an arm around the railing, pressing his cheek to the bar.

"I don't know, Kagome. It's her game, I'm not party to the rules." He told her truthfully, praying she would stop.

She didn't believe him. Another-- was she hitting with less force?-- open palm to the bar, and Inuyasha fell to one knee on the stair, hating himself for his fear and irrationality, but hating her with a passion.

"_Stop!_" He layered it with as much power as he could. Screw subtle. Screw trying to hide his abilities from her.

He was going to get down these godforsaken stairs and tear her fucking throat out!

She gasped, and he heard her crumple and hit the stairs hard enough to send another shockwave through the steel monstrosity.

He winced and ground his cheek into the railing.

"How--?" She croaked.

"I swear, Kagome, I don't know what goes through the elder's minds. I'm just a pawn, like you." He took a deep breath, deciding to give her more information on impulse. "It wasn't just about you. My mistress is trying to break us both."

She kneeled, surprising him with how quickly she shook off his compulsion. It hadn't left her unaffected though.

She was breathing heavily, mewling almost with the effort of fighting his power. He managed a slight smirk, even as he was breaking out in a cold sweat. It was too damn high and open up here.

"Don't.. Do that again." Her voice was shaky and whisper soft, and he could hear her normal tone behind it. She had come back from wherever she had gone before.

"How's it feel?" He questioned loudly.

"You ass." Kagome chirped angrily.

"No really, I've never been on the recieving end of a compulsion. As a human anyways."

"You want to know? It's like having your guts wrenched out of your nose, and the rest of you wrapped in molasses. It's like being wholly under the control of an arrogant, ass of a vampire." She spat out bitterly.

He snorted, managing to turn his head enough to look at her.

Both of them looked ridiculous. He was sandwiched to the bar, clinging it like a lifeline. And Kagome was in a prayer position at the bottom of the stairs, holding herself around the stomach and looking like she might throw up.

"How'd you pull out so fast?" He was actually curious. He had thrown a sizeable amount of power at her, and she'd only succumbed for a minute. That might have been due to surprise, too.

She shrugged, somewhat shakily. "I dunno. I just fight. That was the most powerful one I've felt in a long time."

Inuyasha was caught between three reactions. Pleasure at what could be taken as a compliment. Dismay that he wasn't hiding as well as he should have been. And finally, he wondered what the hell vampire Kagome had come into contact that had a stronger compulsion that he did, and how she was still alive.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome. Use it on me again and I'll beat you with your own shin."

He grinned and pulled some of his weight off the railing, still a very long way away from being able to stand again. He shuddered when she fluidly danced up the steps, her sneakers making the steel ring out musically.

She ducked into his view, and studied his face. Then she sighed and offered a small, pale hand to him. "Need some help?"

"No." He dropped his eyebrows into a warning glare.

"How 'bout you take it anyways? We'll pretend you don't need it, and everyone's happy."

He growled and muttered unintelligibly.

"Sorry, what?" She was trying to peer through the curtain of his hair, and he blew it out of his face weakly, repeating himself slightly louder.

"I can't let go of the bar." He waited for her to laugh at him, but she just smiled and shook her head, like you would at a young child acting up.

Not at a vampire who could snap her like a toothpick and lick the marrow clean, who just happened to be currently clinging to a stairwell while pale and shaking.

She reached a hand gently over to his hand and pried his hands currently in a deathlock around the steel bars, undoing his grip one finger at a time. As soon as her cool fingers touched his own, they relaxed immediately and he was like putty in her hands.

"It's okay, Inuyasha. Let go now. I won't let go." Her voice was completely void of mockery or amusement, and he stared at her in surprise. Why wasn't she taking this? It was like an open invitation for her to take a bite out of him.

She managed to get his arm from around the bar, and they both noticed the way his fingers had created deep grooves in the steel from his grip, but neither of them mentioned it.

Kagome took his right hand and tucked it into the crook of her arm and fisted her hand in the hem of his jeans and helped him get, shakily, to his feet.

"This is fuckin' humiliating." He grunted unhappily, scrunching his face in a frown.

She grinned at him, and shook her head, her wet ponytail smacking him in the shoulder. "Nah. I figure we're even. You made me kiss the bottom of the stairs, I made you hug the railing rather enthusiastically." Her look turned serious for a minute, and she dropped her head, looking at her feet before looking at him sadly. "I am sorry about that, by the way. You deserved it, but I shouldn't have done it."

He gave her a look of disbelief, suddenly deciding she had split personalities and tried to concentrate on his footing. His heartbeat was scatting like blues musician in his chest. Heights... How he hated them.

She went for the next step almost immediately after her feet hit the first steps and he nearly passed out.

"Bitch! Too... Fast!" He made an undignified choking noise.

She winced, and made an embarrassed face. "Sorry."

He stared at her, forgetting where he was. "Who _are_ you?"

"What?"

He shook his head. "Never mind."

She shifted her grip on his jeans and he started, his right hand slid up to grasp her around the waist spasmodically, terrified that he had pissed her off and she was going to shove him down the stairs.

Kagome flushed, went rigid in his grip. "Don't!"

Inuyasha looked at her and let go quickly, grabbing onto her wrist again. Her hand clutched at his jeans again after a long moment, avoiding his gaze.

'What is up with this woman?!'

"Alright. Three more steps and we're done."

They shuffled down the remaining steps and Inuyasha worked all the kinks out of his muscles with a groan. He cracked his neck loudly, oddly pleased with the face the hunter made at the action.

"So.. About the stairs.." He would have to kill her if she began to rub it in his face. He didn't trust that she would just let it drop.

"Never happened." She chirped brightly.

He looked at her, shrugged and tugged his keys out of his pocket with a still shaky hand. "Fine. Now, we go over the rules of riding in my car."

* * *

Saying Inuyasha was obsessive about his car would be an accurate statement, but it really wouldn't capture the _extent_ of that obsessiveness.

'For example. His in-the-car rules... Those are slightly weird, right? Or maybe that's something that's exclusively male. I haven't been around enough boys.. Sorry men, to know if this is normal behaviour.'

"Next rule; No food in the car. Ever. Don't touch my Cds, or the stereo. In fact, don't touch anything. Just sit there. Don't adjust the seats..."

'Blah, blah, blah.. I'm a bitch with my car. Jeez. I'm not going to tear his car apart.'

She let him fade out somewhere around the seventeenth rule. Instead she studied his car. It was a red corvette. Other than that, she didn't know.

She wasn't a car.. Knowledge.. Person.

As in, she didn't know what the year, make, or the type of rims of the car. Ask her what half the buttons or symbols on the dash meant, and Kagome might begin drooling.

He seemed very human behind the wheel of the car.

Very male.

He reclined in the leather seat and concentrated on his driving, one arm propped out the window.

If all her senses, call 'em spider senses for the sake of a pop culture reference, weren't screaming,'VAMPIRE!!!!' Then Kagome would have thought that the sex god beside her was actually human.

She felt safe in nicknaming him a sex god only because she was sure he enhanced his appearance with power and glamour.

So, technically, she was only complimenting his power skills.

Right. She flushed uncomfortably.

Kagome felt guilt pressing down on her for trying to use the vampire's fears against him earlier. It didn't make sense, he was a soulless, undead, blood driven _creature. _And yet, all she could see was the man behind the monster, and she felt terrible. She knew what it was to have someone feed off your fears..

It _hurt_ doing the same to Inuyasha. Just as it hurt every time she killed.

But, that's what having a heartwas all about. Breaking it day in and day out.

She picked up his jacket of Cds and rifled through them to take her mind off being cooped up in a car, and her painful introspection.

'Damn technology. Hey, he has good Cds. Does he actually sit and listen to these?'

She flipped through them, noting the names with growing appreciation for his musical tastes.

He listened to everything.

Inuyasha cursed at someone stopping short and she grunted as the seat belt cut into her chest. "Ow."

Golden eyes flicked over to her in amusement, lighted on the Cd case in her hands, and narrowed slowly. "I believe I said 'Don't touch the Cds. More than once, actually."

She shrugged and continued flicking through the huge collection. "You may have. I wasn't listening. All I heard was "Whine, whine, I'm anal." And something about not putting on lipstick or face powder because it marks up the leather."

His hands clenched the steering wheel and he took a deep, calming breath. She ignored him happily.

"Can we put this on?" She held up a Cd, with a hopeful smile.

He snatched it out of her hands with a growl, and put a clawed finger through the middle of the Cd "Watch it! You don't hold it like that, or you mark up the Cd." He gave her a look like she had just committed some sacreligious, mortal sin.

She sighed disgustedly and threw up her hands. "I'm never getting in the car with you again. God. You're the most frustrating person ever."

He pushed the cd in with a snort. "One, good. I'm never letting you in my car again. Two, I'm not the only frustrating person in this car. No wonder you're single."

She gave him a dangerous look. "Watch it. I'm single because I choose to be." She tried to control the ferocious blush creeping up into her cheeks.

'Oh my God, what am I, twelve? Why am I having this conversation with HIM?!'

"Keh. Whatever. Are you blushing?"

"No. Keep your eyes on the wheel, ass." She looked out the window, deciding to ignore him for the rest of the night. She studied the dark city streets with a whistful sigh, wishing she could just be out walking, and let herself sink into her senses.

The hundreds of non-humans in the city pressed in on her like little witchlights, almost burning her skin. Some were almost human, and a bare blip on her radar, while others pressed in on her like a mac truck. She let herself drift over to Inuyasha sitting beside her, letting her curiousity get the best of her.

She studied him with her eyes closed, seeing his aura in her mind.

She nearly burst out in laughter. He was etched in silver and gold in her head. That seemed so fitting.

But it was.. different... Most vampire auras were a convulted mix of blacks, purples, blues, crimsons... Not golds and silvers.

In fact, she'd never seen an aura made up of those colours, ever.

She frowned. Why did it feel like she wasn't _seeing_ him?

Was he hiding himself from her... He was shielding!

Why, though?

She licked her lips, mentally cracking her knuckles, and wondered if she could pick her way through his shielding without him noticing.

Kagome pressed carefully against the feel of the vampire's shields, and then let herself sink into them, praying he wouldn't feel her presence.

'Don't notice me.. Don't notice me..'

With the mental equivalent of crossed fingers, Kagome gave a final push through his shields.

And began to choke, inhaling spit, which only made it worse.

She let out a breathy scream at the amount of raw power that beat against her and Kagome threw herself out of Inuyasha's shield and back into herself, without any attempt at subtlety.

She just had to get away from the mini sun that was Inuyasha to her senses. It still burned at her, like an after-taste and Kagome shook.

The car swerved and almost smashed into a telephone booth beside a gas station. Inuyasha managed to pump the brakes and turn the wheel out of an uncontrolled slide with a choked,

"Fuck!" He shouted gutturally.

They both sat staring out the windshield at the car bumper pressed ever so gently against the corner of the telephone booth.

Correction, occupied telephone booth.

A young teenager stared at them in horror for a minute before setting the phone down in the cradle, shaking dramatically. Then he very clearly gave them the finger and took off out of the booth, swearing as he tore down the sidewalk.

Inuyasha turned to her, clenching and unclenching his fists fitfully. "What.. The.. Fuck.. Did.. You.. Do?!" His voice had started whisper soft, and became louder with each word, so he screamed the last word.

Kagome pressed her forehead against the window and sucked in a painful whoop of air. "I don't know what you're talking about."

**

* * *

**

A/N: Really quickly... Thanks to everyone who's reviewed. It means so much to me..

It makes me all warm and gooey inside. Like a tollhouse cookie.

Second... Inuyasha is afraid of heights... o.O

How.. Very... OOC.

Except that it fits in, you'll find out later how it does. And some of the other seemingly OOC moments from Inuyasha (how forward he is, his referral to Kag as OOC, etc.,) will also be explained. There are reasons, preciousss. REASONS.


	6. Nightshade

A/N: -wince- No one said that I was intelligent Cymoril... -grins-

Oh well... Feel free to keep pointing out my mistakes to me.. I do NEED a beta reader, but I s'pose I could just take advantage of people telling me how dumb I am AFTER I've posted. .

To everyone who's asked, "Is Inuyasha half-vampire? Half-demon? Half or whole?" I say... -shrugs-

Lol. You'll have to discover it along with me. How scary is that? I tend to go with a loose plot, write when I have ideas, and sketch down minor plot points as I go. I like living on the edge.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed. It makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I have almost 900 hits at this point. Woot!

If there are any questions, email me, I'll answer them if I can.

****

Date with Destiny...--

"You.. Don't.. _What_?" His voice was a throaty rasp, and Inuyasha tried, unsuccessfully, to reign in his anger. Instead, he worked his claws into the denim of his jeans, ignoring the small holes he was creating over his thigh.

The hunter purposefully thumped her head off the window and avoided looking at him. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Which only goaded him further. Maybe if she had turned to face him, admitted she had lied, told him what had happened, and thrown herself on his mercy, maybe then he could have calmed down.

Instead, he tore a large hole in his jeans, swore, slammed a fist into the car dashboard hard enough to make the car shudder, and threw the car into reverse.

He stopped just short of tearing out of the parking lot, mindful of his new tires, and continued swearing heatedly under his breath. Hell, he invented _new_ curses, the old ones just weren't cutting it.

"You are... I'm going to... Dead. _Dead._" He couldn't put a coherent sentence together through his gritted teeth. He could actually feel the curved point of his fangs growing, digging into the soft tissue of his bottom lip, and he winced.

He was getting _way_ too angry. Inuyasha tried to throw back the tide of rage and frustration. He concentrated on his driving, on his breathing, on the now rapid beating of his heart, on the cool wind on his arm hanging out the window.. He could do this. He could make it through and-

"Tell me what the fuck you did!"

Alright, so he couldn't drop it. All he knew was that somehow, _somehow_, Kagome had touched something in him. It had been like a feather light brush of her soft fingers against places.. Places she shouldn't have been touching. It had sent everything in him into a chaotic frenzy, all the muscles in his lower half clenching violently, and his magic had risen up and come to life under that touch.

That warm, liquid, infuriating touch.

It had been brief, there and gone so suddenly he almost doubted it had happened. Would have, except that his body had still been reacting...

And then, next thing he knew he was trying to stop his car from crunching into a telephone booth, and crushing the cocky teenager swearing casually into the receiver.

So, he was slightly angry. And disturbed.

What the hell had she done? He'd never, _ever_, felt that kind of presence, that kind of deep down soul touching before. Had she done it on purpose?

What had she been trying to do, if so?

"I-- I don't know!" Kagome had sunk low into the leather seat, her shoulders hunched against the door like she was contemplating leaping from the moving vehicle.

If he didn't toss her ass first.

"You don't know? You decided, hey, let me just violate the guy sitting beside me for kicks, with no clue as to what I'm doing?"

"_Violate?!_" She sputtered, choked briefly, and her fingers clenched against the door handle.

Inuyasha smacked his left palm down on the door lock and growled. "Yeah. Violate. As if you didn't realize how that would.. How that would affect me."

Her face turned to him in open mouthed confusion, then her face went pale. "What.. How did it affect y-you?"

He stared at her, then sighed and leaned in close to take a deep whiff of her scent, ignoring the way she squeaked and leaned back from him.

"'Excuse me?! What are you _doing_?" Kagome was staring at him wildly, her cheeks faintly pink. How did one person blush so much?

"Shut up." Inuyasha sorted through the physical clues of her scent and frowned in much the same level of confusion as she had earlier. She hadn't known? Honestly and truly, she hadn't had a clue as to what she had invoked in him?

He searched her eyes, not ready to believe the soft undertones of emotion in her scent, still convinced that there was no way she could have done something that.. _intimate_ in complete innocence.

'_But when has she given you any sign that she's anything but innocent? You've watched her for a long time.. Has she ever seemed.. _that _way?'_

He covered his confusion with a snort, "Keh. Whatever. Forget I said anything. Just don't.. Don't do that again. I can't control how I--," He caught sight of her face, which was steadily growing paler and more curious as he talked. He quickly dove in to cut off his sentence and mend his pride. "Never mind! Just-- Never mind."

He huffed and turned his attention fully back to the road, concentrating on the dark city street with an intense single-mindedness, staring at the shadows of light created by the street lamps on the black concrete. He was having a hellish time pretending that his body wasn't still tight in reaction.

Kagome was making faint noises of distress in the back of her throat, apparently unaware he could hear them, and it finally tore his concentration off his driving yet again. "What is wrong with you?"

She started and blew a damp strand of raven hair off her forehead with a wince. "Nothing."

He lifted a pale eyebrow gracelessly. "Then why do you smell like lies?" An exaggeration. His keen nose wasn't a lie detector, but he was acting on a well-educated guess that the increased tempo of her heart, sudden dilation of her pupils, and the faint bitterness that wisped into her scent meant she was shading the truth.

Her light, smoky eyes darted to the road before coming to rest on his face. Oh yeah, she was hiding something.

He shrugged. It didn't matter. She was entitled to her secrets.

"Smell like— Vampires don't have that keen a sense of smell."

He started, only realizing his slip when she pointed it out and he struggled to act nonchalant. He shrugged. "Figure of speech."

She looked at him for a heartbeat, then another, and he avoided her gaze. Then she mirrored his shrug, shifting her shoulder minimally.

Inuyasha quelled the feeling of anxiety in him, trying not to become moody and withdrawn as they closed in on the meet.

His hands clenched on the steering wheel as he took a right down a side street. He growled, low enough that the hunter wouldn't hear, giving into the urge reluctantly.

Back rising in agitation, a light, infuriating tingle cropping up along his nerves, Inuyasha was once again reminded of the fact that he hadn't fed yet.

A faint weakness, barely noticeable, in his limbs, was a forewarning of what would come if he didn't feed, and soon.

He could survive a very long time without feeding, and knew that intimately, but it wasn't a comfortable sort of survival.

No, it was more of a long, unbearably painful, dragging your tortured, brooding-soul ass around through the unending cycle of days and nights.

He cast as subtle a glance as he could at Kagome, who was chewing a thumbnail in anxiety, and he couldn't avoid sweeping a longing gaze over the curve of her throat.

'_No.. Must be strong.. Right.'_

Inuyasha would have been immeasurably proud of himself for breaking his gaze from the palpable distance between his mouth and the girl's pale skin.

Would have been..

'_I wonder what she tastes like..'_

..If only his subconcious would stop taunting him with vivid pictures of what he would like to do to the warm body not a foot away from him.

Kagome ground her cheek into the cool glass of the car window, trying to spread that soothing coolness throughout her body. She felt as if channels in her mind and soul had been blasted open, and then crisped. Her veins were still tingling almost unbearably in afterburn. It was much like the sensation of putting your bare hand on a stove coil. Only on the inside.

She forced herself to look outwardly calm when Inuyasha called her on it, deciding to keep him on a need-to-know basis only, and that this was a definite none-of-his-business.

Especially after he accused her of molestation. Somehow.

'_Agh. That gives me the mad willies.'_

Had she really... done something like that? It sure as _hell_ was NOT her intention. She had definitely not done anything even close to sexual with her gifts.

Right?

Was that even possible?

Whatever, at that point, she didn't care about what the vampire was trying to pin her with, she was in pain, and it _hurt_. So he could officially go to hell, and take his crazy waking wet dreams with him.

Kagome took a deep breath and felt like squirming in her seat to express how_ not _comfortable she was.

She didn't even realize when Inuyasha rolled to a stop in front of a small, cheerful, whitewashed brick building just off one of the main street and only came back to herself when he undid his seat belt and hopped out of the car.

She blinked. Where was he off to?

Inuyasha waited to catch the attention of the young girl at the counter, who was on the phone with someone, chatting animatedly. She was very vampire-hippy chic. She had braided a daisy chain into her long, tousled blonde hair, and was wearing a large floral print flowing skirted dress, but had a huge metallic cross hanging low on her chest, and had painted her fingernails a deep crimson.

It matched the rest of the office, which was painted in cool earth tones and coral couches, with the occasional vase of black roses, or a long-armed silver cross over each of the doorways.

He wanted to roll his eyes at the overdone blending of two cultures, but instead he tapped a clawed finger on the counter, smiling charmingly when the girl looked over at him. She coloured prettily and gave her own smile back, all teeth and suggestion. She raised a pale eyebrow and ran her tongue over her teeth and hung up the phone after abruptly ending her conversation.

He nearly growled at her in disgust, but pulled back and pulled his membership card out of his pocket. "I need a pickup, single." New vampires were all sex and blood. He wanted no part of it. He was so very tired of the continual games his kin played, he just wanted to be around _real_ people who weren't just after what pleasure he could give them, or they could take from him.

The girl, Soleil by the name on her name tag, seemed taken aback at his lack of interest. "Right." She huffed under her breath, apparently forgetting that they could both hear it clearly, and stalked off into the room behind the desk, swinging her hips amost violently in distaste.

Inuyasha rested his hip against the desk and cracked his knuckles one by one.

'_Why the hell do they have a dish full of mints?'_

The door opened again, the young vampire was back with his ID card and a pack of blood tucked into the crook of her arm. Her face was set with fierce determination. He knew instantly he had offended her deeply by not showing interest in her. There she was, putting out all her best moves, looking good enough to eat, and he had the gall to look indifferent.

Tough. He didn't have the time nor inclination to appease her ego.

Soleil slid his ID across the surface of the desk swiping her pale fingers over his picture briefly, her hazel eyes not leaving his face. Inuyasha reached for his card and her fingers brushed against his not-so-subtly, her long fingernails grazing the back of his hand hard enough to make pink marks.

He snapped the card up and tucked it into his jeans, his hackles rising in intense irritation.

'_Watch it bitch. I don't want what you're selling, so take the hint and back off.'_

She blinked rapidly and her crimson lips fell into a frown.

"My blood?" He kept his face impassive, trying not to get angry.

Soleil looked down at the latex packet tucked in her elbow, and back at him, her eyes glinted angrily and she grabbed the blood and snapped it out to him on her palm. He started reaching for it when she spilled her torso over the counter, giving him a lovely view of most of her cleavage. Her hand darted out and grabbed his, shock preventing him from reacting, and wrapped his palm over her chest, just between her breasts, and forcing their faces close enough to touch, to kiss, if either one of them leaned forward in the slightest.

"Why don't you want me? You're so beautiful.. I want you." Her voice was husky, her hazel eyes grew dark, almost black, and her fangs dented her pretty lips.

Inuyasha blinked.

Kagome tapped her fingers off the long knife taped against her ribs for reassurance, just in case she was walking into something dangerous and crossed the walkway to the glass door of the unmarked building. She hesitated, for a minute she had this weird sense of foreboding, like she didn't want to see what was behind this door, but she shrugged it off impatiently.

She had been waiting in the sweltering heat of the damn car far past the point of politeness. He had forgotten about her, or was doing it out of sheer pleasure. Whichever, she didn't care. She wasn't waiting any longer.

She pushed the door open, pretending she hadn't had to fight with it for a minute by pulling on the handle marked with a neat 'push', and nearly had a coronary when a bell over her head jingled merrily.

She wiped her sneakers on the welcome mat and walked confidently into what looked like a small office lobby. She made it as far as a plush couch before she caught sight of Inuyasha at a desk at the far end of the room.

"Hey, I've been waiting in your car for the past ten minutes, and in case you hadn't noticed, it is hot as--" Then she registered what she was seeing. She flushed, averted her eyes from Inuyasha's hand on— Yeah. "Hell..Sorry! Oh so very sorry!"

And disturbed.

Inuyasha turned so fast he blurred, hands suddenly buried in the saftey of his jeans and opened his mouth to say something.

Kagome threw up a hand in embarrassment to interrupt, confident she didn't want to start a discussion, and turned on her heel to make her way out of the building as fast as she could, trying to get the entirely too intimate image of _whatever_ unembossed from her mind.

'_Eww, eww. EWW. So didn't need that. Oh, I feel dirty now.'_

She cursed at the bell on her way out, and the way the heat outside was almost cool against her flaming cheeks. She leaned against the car door, facing the street, and steadfastly thought of nothing.

Inuyasha came jogging out of the building barely a minute later, she could hear his shoes on the pavement, and he stood behind her for a long, awkward moment, clearing his throat repeatedly.

Kagome tried to ignore him, working to get her embarrassment under control, and wondering why she felt quite so _stupid_.

Finally she turned to face him, her arms crossed over her chest, and holding her elbows.

"So... uh. Let's never speak of this again, agreed?" She would have tried for a grin if she thought she could pull it off. Instead she looked anywhere but at his face and wondered why the earth never swallowed you whole when you desperately needed it to.

"Kagome, let me explain--" She cut him off panickedly.

'_Really, really don't want to hear this.'_

"Oh God, kill me now," Kagome ran a hand over her face and realized she was staring at his chest in her effort not to look at him. She managed to top her earlier blush by at least a whole shade and took a deep, shaky breath. "Last time I checked, 'let's never speak of this again' was not code for 'let's discuss this immediately and in great, painful detail'. It was my bad. I walked into, might I mention a pretty innocent looking building, with the silly assumption that I woudn't be walking in on— Yeah. And here I had always thought the privacy of your own home was best for these situations, but I guess I was naive. Of course, offices. Offices are kink central."

She was rambling. Oh God, someone stop her.

Inuyasha grabbed her chin with his fingers cocking her head up so that she was looking at him. She nearly laughed at his expression of horror, but managed to contain it.

"Whoa, stop! You are completely off the map. That wasn't— Wasn't what it looked like."

"You mean you weren't inappropriately touching the secretary?"

He sputtered, his golden eyes wide in surprise and pulled his fingers back from her face like he'd been shocked. "No! Well, yes. But she forced herself on me!"

She snorted, and tried to shift away from him. "You didn't seem to be fighting too hard."

"Keh, whatever. I don't have to explain myself to you. That crazy bitch was throwing herself at me, just in case you were wondering, and I wasn't interested."

"Whatever. Fantastic." Her eyes fell down to the blood packet, one of those latex container deals used for blood donations, and she looked at him in confusion. "Take out?"

He growled and turned away from her to cross to the driver's side door. "Yeah. I couldn't exactly eat at your place. I need something to get me through."

She opened her own door and slid into the leather seat at the same time he did. "Why didn't you just run out and grab a bite, pun very intended, to eat? A nice little neighbourhood punk maybe?" She was surprised at the sharpness that had fallen into her voice.

He looked at her sharply, hands clenching on the steering wheel briefly before he started the car. "Ahh. But that would be against all the rules of vampire etiquette." His voice was at least as cool as her own had been.

She could not wait to be rid of the vampire. He made her angry, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Mostly he made uneasy. Confused.

"Let's go meet your mistress. I want this over with."

Kagome ran her palm over her cheek in an unconscious nervous gesture. She dropped her hand in frustration when she realized what she was doing.

In the list of incredibly stupid things that she had done in her short life, she wished she could say this was the stupidest. Unfortunately, it wasn't. But it was at least top ten.

Really... Why hadn't she questioned this a little harder instead of just going along with it?

'_Because I'm an idiot. And I'm vain. I don't think I'll survive this if Inuyasha's mistress takes it into her head to kill me.. And yet— Part of me wants to stand against her. I want to see how I measure up. I am so very full of myself. Oh God and Goddess, help me.'_

Yes, she was being a complete idiot.

Yes, she had a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of this alive.

But she needed this. Needed to know she could stand against her nightmares. She didn't need a shrink to figure out the reasoning. The thought of being helpless made her want to beat her head off the sidewalk. Failing that, she liked to pretend that she was doing this of her own volition. Of course, the truth was that she really didn't have any choice. But denial was so much prettier.

So, here she was, following Inuyasha up to the portal of hell. Conveniently located between a Speedy-mart and a hair salon. Both just seemed odd to Kagome, and it wasn't the total lack of people looking for evening sugar and fat fixes, both places had their lights on, with the required 'OPEN' in pink neon. Well, Open for the Speedy-mart, 'O-EN' for the hair salon. Both just looked vaguely... off. She couldn't see any employees in either place, and the stores had the blank, creepy quality of empty houses. Uninhabited, abandoned, and seedy.

When she looked away from them for a moment, shadows danced at the periphery of her vision, like small animals scurrying, boneless, over the storefronts.

Her senses were screaming at her with the very base need of human kind, which was to run, run fast and hard until it hurt, but you knew you were moderately safe.

Her mind was caught between cocky overconfidence, a vague desire to buy chocolate to calm her nerves, and belly-quivering fear.

Inuyasha had gotten ahead of her, she had stopped walking without realizing, and was staring in morbid fascination at Missy's Tresses, Hair and Nails Salon. It disgusted her, because it reminded her of the way people will crowd around a murder scene, staring at a dead body.

Why her mind made the analogy she didn't know, but the hair salon and convenient store reminded her of nothing less than a great, hulking corpse, shucked of all its insides.

She shivered vaguely and looked to Inuyasha, who was grinning widely, his fangs, barely lengthened at this point, glinted prettily in the dim streetlight.

"Do you see it, lover?" He gestured at the buildings to either side of him lazily, and ran his deadly clawed fingers through the air and she started when the space around him rippled thickly, like coils of black smog.

He noticed her reaction and cocked his head, looking vaguely curious and slightly impressed. "You _do_ see it. That's fuckin' amazing, princess." He frowned briefly and studied her face like it would tell him something important.

She let the comment go, still fascinated by the hints of subtle rippling at just behind the vampire's lanky form.

"What is it?" She reached out a steady hand, caught up in the dizzying touch of magic that was rubbing her in all the right places.

"It's a complex shielding. Kagome? Are you alright?" She was no longer even seeing Inuyasha, only the tendrils of magic that reached out to her, stretching and contorting from its original boundaries so it could stroke along her skin.

How could she have ever thought it was wrong?

It was so right.. Kagome sighed and closed her eyes, reaching wistfully for the magic, wanting nothing more than to dance in it. It was filling her up without even touching her, making all the hurt in her, all the emptiness, wither and die away. It was blissful numbness..

She was purring in the back of her throat, absolutely soothed, her mind a beautiful rushing of white noise. For once, empty of all thought.

"_Kagome!_" She snapped back to herself so suddenly that it swayed her on her feet. Inuyasha had moved while she had been caught in the magic, and was now staring into her eyes with a disturbing intensity. He snarled at her when he noticed she had come back. "What the hell was that? You were gone."

"The.. Shielding? Who made it?"

Inuyasha raised an eyebrow. "My mistress."

She smiled without a trace of humor. "She must really want to impress me. Or bewitch me. I'm not sure which."

"I've never seen the shielding react like that. To anyone. I actually saw it reaching for you, and I've never been able to physically see it."

Kagome shrugged.

"So.. Can I get through the barrier?"

"Ahh. That's why you have me. I'm your ticket through." He spread his arms and gestured to himself. It was meant to break the tension, but his eyes were seriously lacking in the amusement department.

The vampire was definitely abusing the angry, brooding, serious quota. She realized that a lot of his teasing, witty banter and playfulness was a cover for a deep miasma of dark emotion.

He moved in closer, and she started, stepping back in surprise. "What are you doing?"

"I have to be touching you to bring you through." He shrugged and held a hand out to her, his long, slender fingers dancing in impatience.

Kagome exhaled sharply through her nose and frowned. She stared at his hand for a long moment and wondered if there was a less intimate way for them to get through the wardings, and if she should ask.

"It's this, or I throw you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes and carry you kicking and screaming like a little girl."

His eyes glinted at the idea happily, and he reached for her waist threateningly.

She squeaked indignantly and slapped at his hands and pulled her body lithely out of reach. "Holding hands it is then."

She clapped her hand around his awkwardly, and held her arm out from her body a bit, so she had the illusion of distance from the vampire. There was a small shock of hot electricity when her skin made contact with his, like an aftertaste of what she had felt earlier, and she shot him a look of suprise.

His eyes met hers, widened in a mirror image of her own wonder, and they both looked down at their joined hands.

Inuyasha adjusted their grip so his hand was wrapped around hers, actually completely engulfing her own small hand to her bemusement, and intertwined his fingers with hers, issuing a low whistle of wonder at a second, stronger jolt that issued from their touch. Kagome jumped and nearly tugged her hand from his when another shock coursed up her veins and only fizzled somewhere around her bicep. It didn't hurt.. It was just slightly alarming.

"Nah, nah. Calm down koi. We still have to get through the barrier, then you're welcome to freak out and get a safe distance away from me. Hell I might do the same. This is.. New to me." Inuyasha tugged her hand so that she was close to him, and switched her to his left hand and wrapped his right arm around her waist and lightly held her by the hip.

Kagome stiffened in surprise and clenched her fists, unsure of whether to hit him, or.. Hit him.

"I'm just keeping you from running, love. I have this crazy notion you don't like to be touched." He sounded entirely too amused, and the urge to beat him over the head with his own leg became a little stronger.

"Not so much with people. I have this silly distrust of vampires. Colour me cynical." She grit out and resisted the urge to put her thumbnail through his left eye.

"Mm. I'll have to work on that." Inuyasha squeezed her hand, which made her hand throb in slight pain, remembering that morning. "Ready?"

"No. Let's go anyway." And they walked, briskly, through the small alleyway that connected the buildings. The barrier was palpable about halfway through, like thick honey being poured down her spine. It made her shudder. She looked to Inuyasha to see if he was feeling the same way, but he didn't seem to be feeling anything. Either that, or he was used to it.

At the end of the alley was an obsidian door set in the faded brick wall. It wasn't particularly impressive aesthetically. Inuyasha dropped his hands from her, and she shifted a step sideways happily. Being tucked against his warm body had been throwing her off balance.

He rapped on the door without any rhythm. It was vaguely disappointing to Kagome, who had expected a complex pattern of knocks, and a memorable password at the very least.

"Cheat." She murmured, realizing Inuyasha would hear. He grinned, apparently catching the drift of her thoughts.

The door swung open.

All hell broke loose.

Kagome felt something thick and horrible wrap around her like a giant invisible fist, and she slid limply to the concrete. Inuyasha snarled and called her name gutturally.

She blinked and struggled to open her mouth to breathe, panic clamping around her heart and making it beat wildly.

'_I can't MOVE!! I can't breathe!'_

She managed to suck in a deep, pained lungful of air through her nostrils, and she used it to exhale forcefully, trying to express her absolute panic and anger through her nose, since her mouth was clamped shut.

She was crouched, kneeling limply, and Inuyasha reached for her, cursing blackly. She caught sight of his face and recoiled as much as her invisible restraints would allow. His canines had extended, and his nostrils were flared in anger, but it was his eyes that terrified her.

They had begun to bleed through with crimson. She grunted and struggled wildly, watching his hand move in closer with panic. He must have caught the fear in her eyes because he growled and pulled back.

Movement in the doorway drew her attention, and she stared at the two figures watching them silently. Inuyasha turned violently and cracked a fist suddenly into one vampire's face with an audible crunch followed by a gout of thick blood.

Kagome winced in disgust and struggled against whatever was holding her angrily, her panic growing when all her efforts yielded only a fine trembling, her effort showing only in the sweat beading on her upper lip.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?! She's coming willingly, this isn't needed!" Inuyasha's voice was low and guttural, sending a touch of fear running coldly up her spine leaving goosebumps in its wake.

The vampire with the gushing wreck of a nose glared at Inuyasha in absolute hatred and took a threatening step forward. "I wouldn't question any orders right now, pet. You're already in enough trouble as is." The lanky vampire's vibrant green eyes flashed like cat's eyes in the dimness of the alley.

'_What the hell is going on here?!'_

The other vampire, a tall, slim shaggy-haired vamp reached towards Kagome, crouching slightly like he was about to pick her up. His hands barely brushed her skin, while she squeaked in fear and tried to pull herself backwards, when another fist wrapped around it and squeezed, the vampire's knuckles cracking loudly in the alley. To his credit, he winced, but didn't scream.

Kagome looked up to Inuyasha in confusion, but he was avoiding her gaze. "Don't fucking touch her."

The vampire looked to his taller companion and pulled his hand out of Inuyasha's grip. "I'm to bring her in."

"If you try to lay a finger on her, I'll tear you into pieces small enough to cram into a ziplock baggie."

She exhaled deeply, trying to force Inuyasha to look at her. He was going to get his ass kicked if he kept arguing. It was two to one, and she was sure that there were more vamps inside.

"Why are you so protective, pet? She's mortal. Not to mention, she's been killing our kin." She wanted to know too, actually. Why was he fighting his own people for her?

"She's my fucking responsibility. I'm the one who's gonna bring her in. You don't get to steal my hunter. I'm the one who's subdued her, I'm the one who gets her."

'_I'm sorry? Subdued— His hunter? That's it, I'm going to break this magic cage, then tear off his limbs and impale him with them. And here I thought he cared. Subdued my ass.'_

She panted angrily and Inuyasha's eyes flickered over to her flushed face. He smirked almost imperceptibly. Kagome growled loudly against her closed lips.

'_Kill him dead. I will kill him.'_

"I'm not discussing this with you_, pet. _You can back off, and let us take her in. Or you can be restrained, and we'll still take her in. Do it, Kai." Why did everyone call Inuyasha, 'pet'?

If it annoyed him, maybe she should try it on for size..

Kai reached for her again, watching Inuyasha warily, and when Inuyasha stiffened and looked as if he would object physically, the other vampire tackled him into the concrete.

Kagome's eyes widened and Kai pulled her unresponsive arms around his neck and lifted her against his body. She began to breathe heavily, willing her limbs to work, so she could beat Kai to death with her bare hands. He reached down and knocked his arm into the back of her knees and swept her into his arms, bridal-style.

Then he turned to watch Inuyasha and his partner fighting on the pavement. Her head was lying against Kai's chest, but she could see the two ferally attacking each other.

She flinched as Inuyasha got a fist to the gut, but he barely blinked, and threw himself bodily at the other vampire, tackling him to the pavement. Then he tore his claws into the vampire's chest, sinking his fingers to the second knuckle in his flesh. The vampire gasped and went very still.

"I'm champion for a reason, bitch. Try me again, and I might not be so nice." Inuyasha slammed an elbow into the vampire's throat, then stood, chest heaving, and kicked him, hard, in the ribs.

Then he turned to the two of them and smiled predatorily. "Kai."

Kagome's abdomen shivered at the thick smear of crimson ringing his pupils. The amber still shone through, but barely.

"She's _mine_."

Kai went rigid, his hands on Kagome's back and knees tightened enough to almost-hurt.

Inuyasha left the vampire struggling to breathe on the alley floor and stood in front of Kai, his eyes on Kai's face alone. He held his arms out for Kagome and said nothing. Kai's grip on her loosened, but he stood for a long moment, deciding, before he transferred her carefully into Inuyasha's arms.

Inuyasha nodded to Kai, who turned and stalked out of sight through the doorway. Inuyasha shifted her in his grip, so that she was higher, and held more secure, and he let her hands lie limply on her abdomen.

"Much better, right Koi?" He grinned down at her, his eyes almost completely his unique golden amber again. She stared at him in dsbelief and snorted.

She wasn't so sure she was in a drastically better position, laying defenseless in Inuyasha's arms. Before, she would have agreed with him, but after his pretty little speech a moment before, she wasn't sure. It was funny, somewhere along the line she had begun to trust the vampire without realizing it.

She was thankful she had gotten her reality check straight from the horse's mouth. If Inuyasha hadn't given her a reason to believe otherwise, she might have grown to trust him more than she should. And that would have ended badly.

You don't trust the animal that eats you.

She shut her eyes tightly and fought at what held her. Inuyasha sighed, but said nothing.

"We have to go in now, hunter."

She opened her eyes again and met his gaze. Her eyes widened. He expected her to go in there helpless?

He pulled his gaze from her own and entered the building, carrying her through the dimly lit building like she weighed as much as a child. She couldn't move her head to see the decor, her gaze was limited to Inuyasha and snatches of the ceiling.

Which was black. Occasionally it was broken up by a small hanging glass lamp, shaped like a multi-pointed star, holding a single candle. They were the only source of light as far as she could tell, and the building was almost dark as night.

Kagome's heart was thudding against her chest, her abdomen full of fluttery dread. Her insides were quivering with anxiety.

They reached a set of doors, or she would guess, and Inuyasha held her in one arm with only a little difficulty, and opened the door before crossing the threshold.

His arm crushed her to his chest suddenly, and she grunted.

"Hello my pet. What have you brought me?" The voice was soft and feminine, but it made all the hair on Kagome's neck and arms stand straight on end. She flinched.

"The girl, mistress." Was it just her or did Inuyasha say the word mistress with great distaste?

"So I see. Bring her here and set her down on the carpet. The poor thing has had a rough couple of days I'd bet."

Kagome nearly rolled her eyes. Of course she'd had a hard couple of days! Whose fault was that?

Inuyasha stiffened and hesitated before bringing her forward and setting her down carefully, in a rough sitting position, and then to her surprise he dropped down behind her, cross-legged like a barrier at her back.

But her confusion fell away instantly at the vampire in front of her.

Inuyasha's mistress.

'_She's so beautiful..'_

She was reclining in front of them on a small, plush, black loveseat. She had crossed her legs and had her arms resting on the back of the seat, sitting in the kind of simple, graceful elegance that Kagome could never recreate.

She had long, loosely waved, radiant black hair, a couple of shades lighter than Kagome's own colour piled beautifully up in a tidy updo, with tendrils artfully sweeping her bare shoulders. She was pale perfection, like soft ivory, and was tall and slim, but had the kind of soft curves woman went under the surgeon's knife for. She had soft, golden brown eyes, overlarge, and framed by a fan of long lashes, and an artful sweep of charcoal eyeliner. Smiling at her gently were soft and pouty lips, glossed so that they shone.

Her beautiful frame was covered in a loose white dress as light as gossamer, the straps had fallen prettily over her shoulders, and the skirts hung almost to her mid-calves in the back, but the front was held with a simple silk ribbon so that it was pinned up to show off her beautiful long legs. She seemed ageless, not young or old, but she looked at least a decade older than Kagome. She was probably centuries older in reality. If not more.

She was the embodiment of beauty, grace, and femininity.

So everything Kagome wasn't.

She felt like a ragamuffin in front of her, and she didn't even know what that was, only that it captured how she felt in her jeans, button up shirt over two tank tops, and sneakers. Ragamuffin-y.

Those vibrant eyes caught hers, glinting with quiet amusement as if she had caught the direction of Kagome's thoughts, and Inuyasha's mistress swept out a hand elegantly, and the invisible fist that had been holding her fell away instantly.

Kagome swayed slightly and nearly collapsed backwards, completely unprepared for regaining her mobility. A hand gently, but firmly, supporting her at the small of her back kept her upright. She wondered if Inuyasha was trying to hide the fact that he was helping her from his mistress.

She blinked rapidly and placed her palms on the carpet to further stabilize herself.

"Little slayer.. You're a fiery little creature. Beautiful to look at, so pure... So wild." She leaned forward and ran long, graceful fingers through Kagome's hair, combing the strands out of her face. Kagome fought not to flinch, watching those long fingernails carefully. "You've been hiding for so long..... Forgive me. I'm losing myself in you. I am the mistress of the city. Tsubaki."

Kagome fought to find her voice again, hating how much she felt like throwing herself at Tsubaki's feet, and knowing at least half of that was Tsubaki's magic. "I'm.. I'm not a slayer. I'm a bounty hunter." She wasn't sure what the difference was, but the way the vampire mistress said the word, she got the feeling it meant something.. Completely different.

Tsubaki threw her head back and laughed, a pretty, feminine noise of silver delight. "You pretend to be many things, and deny much of who you really are, my darling. I know all of your secrets. How old are you, my wild thing?"

Kagome stared at her. She couldn't know. "Twenty-one."

Tsubaki's eyes twinkled. "Mm. Yes."

Kagome dug her fingers into the carpet, and shook. Inuyasha's hand at her back fisted in her shirt, trying to keep her where she was. She was close to bolting, like the wild creature Tsubaki kept calling her. She hoped to God that he wasn't reading between the lines of their conversation. It was very, very important to her that Inuyasha didn't figure out how young she was. She didn't know exactly why.

Tsubaki's sharp nail traced the contours of Kagome's face, soft, but she knew that just a slight increase in pressure, and Inuyasha's mistress could peel her like an orange.

"You've barely come into your gifts, slayer. You are on the knife edge of coming into your power, of becoming who you will be. Did you know why I called you to me?"

Kagome stared into Tsubaki's eyes, unable to look away. "They said you were obsessed with me. I'm guessing that it's because I've been killing your people."

Tsubaki cocked her head and ran her finger over Kagome's cheeks gently. "That is a very small part of it. I am entranced by you. But, as we all are. As we all are. And, you have been a thorn in my side, with the way you've been cruelly slaughtering my people. But I could overlook that, as most of my people are damned fools. I wanted to see you.. Because I'm afraid of what you'll become. Did you know that the city has been talking of you?"

Kagome shook her head minimally, trying not to gouge herself on the claw stroking her face. "No.."

"Since before you were born."

Kagome frowned. "That doesn't make sense."

"Probably not to you. That's alright. You're only mortal after all. I'll explain it another time. Now isn't the time. Only know, what you are now is _nothing_ compared to what you will be. You will rise from your own ashes, the phoenix, rebirthed and eclipsing your past. Death on two legs." She paused, and smiled sheepishly. " I'm sorry.. I'm being cryptic again. It's one of my faults. Right, pet?"

Inuyasha's hand loosened on Kagome's shirt and made a noncommittal noise.

'_Why does she call him that? 'Pet'. Inuyasha doesn't seem like ANYONE'S pet to me.'_

"Now.. We'll have to get to what we're going to do with you, Kagome. Kagome.. Pretty name. Bland. It isn't suitable. Help me, pet. What should we call her?"

"I don't know, mistress.."

"I know what it is. She is Nightshade. Deadly. Beautiful. _Nightshade._"


	7. Rosary

A/N: Eep. Bad Zade. Bad. I can't believe how long I left this without an update, but I just couldn't seem to write it the way it needed to be written. I hope no one's lost interest..

Disclaimer: I really don't own Inuyasha. For serious.

* * *

Inuyasha's hand on the small of her back was steadily becoming more of a hindrance than a help, as time went on, it seemed to her like the vampire's palm was heating up, and fast. It was starting to feel like she had a brand on her back. 

She frowned, twitching, wondering if skin, vampire or not, could get that hot unless you were on fire. Her movement seemed to catch his attention, and he made a warning rumble in the depths of his chest that trailed through his fingers directly into her nerve endings under his touch and made her squeak and arch her back away from him.

His hand fisted in the material of her shirt, until it pulled the collar tight against the column of her throat. It made her feel like she was being reprimanded.

Tsubaki's attention was elsewhere, though. Which was probably fortunate for the both of them.

The mistresses' eyes vibrant eyes centered on the large doors to her elaborate parlor seconds before Kagome heard a muffled knocking ring out into the room. The guest wasted no time waiting for a reply, or for someone to open the door, and pushed the door open hard enough to crack it off the wall opposite.

Kagome turned, blinking brightly, feeling the familiar sensation of the hair on the back of her neck and arms rise at the proximity of a vampire.

A young girl with the eyes of someone who had seen a lot of living, even if her body denied it, sauntered in on a pair of bright red stilettos that laced up her slender calves, a disastrously short, multi-layered, black chiffon skirt, and a long black crepe scarf wrapped over her chest and tied in a massive bow at the back that trailed all the way to the floor and left an indecent amount of stomach exposed.

Her hair was short, to her chin at the longest bits, in scruffy layers, with highlights of deep black and purple, and she had lined her eyes in shimmering emerald and black liners. Her mouth was a deep crimson, and she had a stud centered under her lip.

She was stunning.

She also had a small fox pinned tightly in her arms, even though it shuddered and struggled wildly, scratching and biting her with a frightened fury. She didn't blink, only pinched it at the scruff and crinkled her nose at it.

"Bad, Toto. Bad. Mommy's going to have to get you a muzzle if you keep biting." She crooned, fluffing the red fur over its nose. It took a large portion out of her index finger and emitted a low, squeaking growl.

"What the hell is that, Yura?" Tsubaki snapped, black brows knitted in disgust. It surprised Kagome, the way she dropped her oddly formal, archaic way of speaking in riddles and began to sound like a modern day woman.

"It's my new baby. Ever since poor ickle Heathcliff bit the big one last week I've been heartbroken." She smiled and pranced over to Tsubaki, holding the struggling creature out for examination, and apparently pets.

Tsubaki scowled at it. "Heathcliff was human, and this is not a human. Nor is it a pet. Besides, you ate Heathcliff, Yura, and then stuffed his body in Kumiko's bed sheets."

"Yes. It was so tragic." She sniffled, and crushed the fox to her chest. "Kumiko was _coveting_ him. But I was smart this time, I went to the flesh market and got myself a _youkai_. A kitsune. He's so pretty. And with his regeneration capabilities, he's fully capable of recovering if I get hungry. His name is Toto."

Yura poked him with a crimson nail between the eyes. "Change, lambkins. Show Aunty Tsubaki," She murmured encouragingly. "C'mon, do it you little shit."

Kagome cast Inuyasha a horrified look over her shoulder and he scowled at her, tightening his grip on her shirt. His amber gaze pinned hers and he shook his head violently. _'No.' _He mouthed.

'What, no? He acts like he **knows** me. Arrogant jerk.'

She turned back just as Yura explained that the youkai would shift if provoked. She dug a nail into his fur and Kagome cried out at the same time as the little kitsune did, and she moved forward unthinkingly as Inuyasha dug his own nails into her back enough for the little twinges of pain to be a warning and no more.

The kitsune shuddered and shook like a wet dog coming in from the rain, and suddenly Yura had an armful of boy. He was small, but probably about ten years old. His dazzling green eyes glared at Yura hatefully, and he flashed his small canines.

"My name isn't _Toto_! It's _Shippo!_" He hissed ferally, his voice hoarse, like he had been crying.

He still looked remarkably like a fox, with elongated, pointed ears, fangs and shaggy long auburn hair that fell messily into his face and down to his shoulders. He had a baggy black t-shirt with '**I love your mom!**' emblazoned on the front, and a pair of shorts with fluffy kittens chasing each other over them.

Not to mention that he still had a fluffy, downy, auburn tail, tipped in brilliant white.

His neck already had two small tears in it. Yura stroked his hair and then ran a nail over the marks with possessiveness shining through her dark eyes. Kagome's heart gave a violent lurch, her soul decided for her. She had no choice in the matter.

Kagome wrapped her left hand over Inuyasha's hand on the small of her back, then twisted sideways and slammed her elbow into his solar plexus violently. He grunted, more surprised than in serious pain, and she took the opportunity to rock to her feet in a crouch and bounce into a standing position.

"Let him go!" She hissed angrily, ignoring everyone but the kitsune turned little boy quivering with false bravado, and very obviously terrified out of all reasoning. Something in her withered and died at the sight of him, and she shoved the sudden memories that ghosted at her to the back of her mind.

She had no weapons, but at that moment, it was the farthest thing from her mind. If need be, she was going to smudge the slutty vamp's makeup all over her pretty face and then beat her to death with the decorative bronze cherub on the side table behind her.

Yura seemed to notice Tsubaki's guests for the first time. She turned her dark lined eyes on them, noted Kagome uninterestedly and passed her up for Inuyasha. Her eyes lit up with some dark hunger and her lips quirked into a bloody smirk.

"Hello, pet. When you gonna let me play with that pretty, pretty hair of yours? I want to feel that stuff up against bare skin. Such beautiful hair shouldn't belong to the scruffy mutt champion..."

She purred, mingling compliments, seduction and derision in almost equal parts.

"Drop fuckin' dead, Yura, you creepy bitch." He bit out, flashing his teeth in an unconscious showing of how disgusted he was.

Kagome fisted her hands in the denim over her thighs and glared at the beautiful vampire, wholly offended that she'd been deemed unworthy of her attention._'Specially since I'm gonna rub her face into the carpet until she can taste dust mites. Bitch. I'm going to get that little boy as far away from here as possible. I never should have come here, vampires are just teeth and violence. I KNOW that.'_

"Ow. Puppy. There's a big gaping hole where my hole was. You don't have to hide your raging desires from me, you know." She put a hand on her chest, batting her eyes heavily. Shippo leaned over and bit her on the shoulder, whipping his head back forward. She hissed at him and tapped his nose.

Inuyasha growled, and his cheeks were flushed uncomfortably as he glared at Yura, then Tsubaki, and finally he stopped on Kagome, glaring for a long, burning moment. Then he clawed his fingers and popped each of the knuckles loudly.

"You," he ordered. "Get your ass over here, we're leavin'." Brilliant eyes shimmered with sharp yellow glints, and _dared_ her to say no.

Tsubaki watched them all silently, her gaze both faintly amused and annoyed, and looking as if she was deciding whether to let them play out their soap opera or to give them all a scruffing and reprimand them like naughty puppies.

Kagome shook her head angrily, sending her hair flying against her cheeks, and gave Yura as fierce a look as she had in her. "Give me the kitsune."

Yura turned to her, mouth parting softly in shock. "Excuse you, little mortal prude?"

Kagome leaned forward and tugged on the stud marking the cleft under the vampire's heavily painted bottom lip, _hard_, drawing a pained yelp out of her. She slammed her foot into the immortal's instep, then brought it up suddenly and snapped her shoe into her kneecap.

The vampire dropped Shippo, hissing, to clutch at her throbbing kneecap, and Kagome snatched the boy's shirt and helped him regain his footing before she pushed him behind her protectively.

Yura looked up at her, her eyes full of black death, her lips already curling back off her teeth. "_Ooh. _I'm going to kill you, and they'll find your mangled corpse on the street in that hideous fucking outfit." She hissed.

Kagome flared her nostrils and plucked at her shirt, offended. "I _like_ this outfit!"

Yura slashed out with an open palm, her nails clawed, and Kagome arched backwards, managing not to have her eyes gouged out by sheer dumb luck and caught a claw across her right collarbone in a searing tear of skin, and she exhaled sharply through her teeth. Her spine hurt from the overreaching.

Something solid caught her around the waist and pulled her back, hard, and out of the way of one of the vampire's wild swings, and Kagome swung out a foot, catching Yura in the ribs. "Ha!" She shouted triumphantly as the other woman fell back a couple of steps with a frustrated shriek of pain.

She struggled against the thing holding her dangling above the ground, crushed against something solid and warm, then realized it was Inuyasha by the sight of his clawed hands locked around her ribs, and the familiar vibration of his growl through her bones. Then she struggled even harder.

"Let me _down!" _She ordered, face contorted with anger. She rained his shins with slams from the heels of her sneakers.

"No way, bitch." His voice was husky with the force of his ongoing growl. "I told you before, not to start anything."

"Enough, children!" Tsubaki demanded, clapping her hands like a schoolteacher and giving them all sharp looks. "Yura, you were silly enough to provoke the slayer, you get the slayer's rage. Take it with grace and go _play_ with some other unfortunate souls."

Yura's mouth dropped, and she looked flabbergasted. "That's a slayer? There's no way in hell. She's... A prude and— Oh, I guess it makes sense. Those slayer's are an uptight bunch." She gave Kagome a dirty look, then snapped her fingers at the kitsune, who had tucked himself behind both Inuyasha and Kagome without anyone's notice.

"No!" Kagome shook her head fiercely. "She doesn't take him with her. I won't let her."

"_She's _go to do whatever the hell _she _pleases, slayer." Yura's eyes flashed in open jealousy, and she pointed a painted nail angrily at Inuyasha crushing a struggling Kagome to his chest and let out a low shriek. "What the hell are you doing, pet, getting so cozy with _her?!_"

Inuyasha said nothing, only gave Kagome's abdomen a firm squeeze with his arm, pressing her tighter to him and growling low in his throat.

Tsubaki wisped over to them, looking like a pale, sparkling spirit, and danced her cool fingers over Inuyasha's arm, following down his fingers to where they met with Kagome's stomach, and then she gave Kagome a firm pat on the stomach.

Kagome went still, gaping in shock, wholly freaked out.

"Don't you know, Yura? Inuyasha has a weakness concerning pretty human females. " Tsubaki grinned, flashing her perfect fangs. "Now, get the hell out of my parlor. Leave the kitsune, he's no longer in your care."

Kagome frowned in confusion, feeling like the conversation was going over her head. Inuyasha swore vehemently under his breath, but kept his grip on her.

Yura glared at them all for a long, tense moment, looking like she wanted nothing more than to tear Kagome to little pieces. She finally gave a sharp cry of frustration, slammed a stiletto into the floor. With a directed "_Later_" to Kagome, she stormed out, slamming the door hard enough to crack the plaster of the wall framing the doorway.

Tsubaki waved a hand in frustration, then sighed. "Tempestuous lot, we vampires? Am I right, slayer? It's all drama, drama, drama with them. Like _teenagers." She_ stressed, giving Kagome a candid look, then reached forward for Kagome's hand and pulled it into her own, holding it firm enough to restrict the blood circulation.

Something burned through Kagome's fingertips from Tsubaki's hand, running up her arm like battery acid in her veins, making her skin go numb with rapid, frightening progression until Kagome went limp in Inuyasha's grasp, letting out a cry through frozen lips.

Inuyasha clutched her tightly, keeping her upright, and directed a growl at Tsubaki. "What the _fuck_ are you doing?!" He rasped, tugging Kagome as if trying to pull her from Tsubaki's touch.

"Did you think I didn't see you trying to keep her from my aura when you came in? I'm a fucking _vampire_, pet. I saw you holding her upright. If I want to hurt her, do you really think your _protection_ will be worth _anything_ to her?" Tsubaki spat, her face twisting with sudden, revealed rage. She no longer looked even remotely like the beautiful, perfect woman from before.

She leaned forward and used her free hand to flick Inuyasha's nose. "Bad puppy." She scolded.

Kagome blinked, caught between panic at her immobility and utter confusion.

Inuyasha's growl hit a new frequency, too low to hear, but the rumble against Kagome's back was physically uncomfortable, bordering on pain.

Tsubaki pulled back and sighed, her face returning to normal. "I forgive you. I know you can't help it." She turned bright eyes on Kagome, and smiled maternally.

"Nightshade... I have a present for you..."

Kagome pulled away from her gaze with a glare, knowing not to meet the vampire's gaze if she wanted to retain _any _semblance of free will.

"You see, I have no place, no time for the responsibility of a half-wild kitsune..." She offered, leaving the rest for Kagome to fill in.

"Wait, fuck no. She doesn't want a pup." Inuyasha interrupted, using a foot to push the kitsune away from him and closer to Tsubaki.

"Oh well.. Guess I'll give him back to the flesh market. They'll find him a place." Tsubaki shrugged and reached out for Shippo.

Kagome made a noise of protest. "I.. Want.. Him." She croaked, struggling against the elder vampire's geas painfully, feeling like she was wading through thick, sucking quick sand and sinking fast.

Tsubaki grinned happily and shoved the kitsune to Kagome, making him stumble and fall into her legs. He righted himself and gave them all a frightened, suspicious look.

"Congratulations, Slayer. It's a boy."

Kagome nearly fell over as her body's control came back to her in a disorienting rush. She gasped at the dizzying feeling, and then snatched at the kitsune, pulling him to her protectively and glaring at the vampire.

"Inuyasha.. I want to _leave_." She hissed, no longer bothering to struggle in his grip.

She felt him nod, and then release her to grab her arm, tightly, and drag her toward the door. She in turn, tugged at the youkai in her grip, and they made their way quickly to the exit like an absurd train.

"Pet. Bring her back to me when I call for her." Tsubaki called out as Inuyasha kicked the door closed behind him.

* * *

Kagome clung to the little kitsune, who was quivering just as hard in her arms as he had in Yura's. She couldn't blame him, not when she was shaking nearly as badly. 

Tsubaki was sheer _power._ She had manipulated Kag like a marionette.

Shippo made a soft noise, like he was swallowing a whimper. A sweep of guilt ran through her. She needed to concentrate on the little boy who had been through hell and back before she mired in her own problems.

'He thinks that he's just gone from one owner to another, he probably thinks I just wanted a pet, like Yura. That nasty piece of work.'

She loosened her hold on him, so that he could pull himself away if he wanted to, but prepared herself for if he decided to bolt, which, with the way his nose was twitching and his vibrant emerald eyes were darting from doorway to doorway, it looked like he might.

She couldn't let him tear off, though, or he'd probably just end up in the same situation as before.

Or he'd get off'ed by one of the extremist groups out there who knew just as well as she did what was prowling the streets, but unlike Oblivion, didn't differentiate between dangerous, and _child._

Inuyasha gave a nasty growl at a tall, dark, male vampire walking past them in the cramped hallway, in a pair of incredibly short, glittering shorts, as well as having his eyes lined in bright indigo eyeliner and sparkles on his cheeks. And _nothing_ on from the waist up. Then he pressed her to the opposite wall with his back.

Kagome glared at his shoulder, and peered out from behind him.

The vampire saluted her with two fingers to his forehead and a jaunty grin that showed his fangs. He gave her a shrug and a slow wink of his painted eye when Inuyasha's growls became more audible.

Kagome flushed, embarrassed, and caught the dirty look Inuyasha gave her.

'What, did he think I was flirting there? I think he was just doing that to goad Inuyasha. So why am **I** getting a **look**?'

She pointedly ignored him, and dropped her gaze back to the kitsune. She wanted to stop and talk to him, but knew it was wisest if they got out of Tsubaki's lair, or whatever the hip kids were calling it these days, for safety's sake.

Inuyasha finally lead them to the door and kicked it open with one foot, pulling Kagome, and by extension Shippo, out into the moonlit alleyway.

They all pulled in a deep lungful of city air with matching expressions of relief.

"Fuckin' finally. I hate that damn place." Inuyasha grumbled, casting the building a look of pure venom before he gestured at Kagome. "C'mon, let's go home."

She was kneeling on the pavement, her hands shaking while she steadfastly pretended that they weren't, and dug in her pocket for a Kleenex. "Hold on a sec."

Kag managed to work a piece of unused tissue out of her pocket with two fingers. "Hey.." She whispered, letting go of the quivering youkai's arm and ducking her head to look him in the face. "Sweetheart, c'mere..."

He hid his face behind the fall of russet bangs, pulling away from her distrustfully, issuing a warning squeaky growl that reminded her disturbingly of the fuming vampire a few steps away.

Inuyasha looked up at the kitsune growling at Kagome, his eyes narrowing dangerously, and stomped over to them.

"Oi, pup! She just fuckin' rescued your ass. If you keep growling, I'm going to bring you right back to Yura, you ungrateful--" He growled, then grunted as Kagome punched him sharply in the thigh, giving him a vicious charlie horse.

"_Inuyasha!_" She hissed, tossing him a dirty look. "Ignore him. He's an ass. I won't let him take you back to her."

Inuyasha rubbed his thigh angrily, matched her dirty look with an amber one and snorted. "Bitch, if you hit me _one more time _tonight..." He threatened heatedly, eyes narrowing.

Kagome ignored him happily, and smoothed out the tissue in her hands. She watched the kitsune carefully, her heart quaking in time to his shivers. "My name's Kagome.. Erm. Kag. I know you're scared, but I promise, I'm one of the good guys. I won't hurt you. I want to help you, Shippo."

Green eyes peered at her distrustfully from behind a curtain of auburn hair.

"Hey, Koi. That's what we call a youkai. It ain't human. Doesn't your job consist of killing non-humans?" He grunted smugly, looking pleased with his deduction.

Kagome rolled her eyes, silently thanking Inuyasha for screwing up her chances at garnering some small trust from the kitsune by mentioning that she just happened to be a bounty hunter. "And yet you still live. No, _Inuyasha,_ I don't kill non-humans. I kill _vampires_, and the occasional nasties who are killing humans."

"But if they're just slaughtering each other, you keep your nose out of it, right?" He snorted and folded his arms over his chest, a shadow passing over his features suddenly. "'As long as they aren't hurting humans, they're safe from you and yours, right?"

"Whoa, where'd this come from--?" Kagome started, and then noticed the absence of a particular someone. Her eyes moved to the end of the alley and she caught a flash of movement. "Inuyasha! Get him before he _hurts himself!"_ She cried, scrambling to her knees.

Inuyasha caught sight of the shifting in the shadows, swore blackly, and moved too fast for her to follow. "I don't know why you want him around anyways.." He bit out as he dove after the fleeing youkai.

There was a sharp squeak of fear, and then Inuyasha grunted and swore. "Oi! Quit _biting!_"

Kagome caught up to them after a minute, her knees scraped from trying to get up from the pavement so fast. Inuyasha was dangling the boy upside down by his tail, looking both frustrated and wickedly amused by the youkai's frantic attempts to dislodge himself.

"Inuyasha--!" Kagome cried, halting mid-sentence when Inuyasha grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her out of the alley, dragging her casually to his car parked a little way down the empty street. "What are you doing?" She hissed.

"I'm taking you home, this getting to know each other shit is taking way too long."

* * *

Inuyasha glared at the youkai trying to disentangle himself from the knots he had made in the seat belt, using the nylon to restrain the kitsune at the wrists and waist, through his rearview mirror. He wondered if Kagome could hear the youkai swearing beneath his breath vehemently before he bent and opened his mouth like he was going to try and chew his way to freedom. 

"Do it and die, kid." He warned, meeting the boy's angry green eyes in his mirror, tapping the steering wheel with his claws threateningly.

"Stop threatening him, he's already frightened of us as it is," Kagome snapped, looking like she might sock him again. "And he's only a little kid, you bully."

"Well, the 'little kid' is trying to chew through my fuckin' seat belts!" He shouted back at her, slapping his blinker on with a negligent hand to signal a left hand turn as he argued.

"You are seriously deficient, you know that? You can't go two minutes without cursing, growling, flexing, or throwing a temper tantrum. It's really sad to watch, it really is— Hey. Where are we going..?" Kagome stopped her rant to press her face to the window, straining to see the street signs and landmarks through the black night outside the car.

"Temper tantrum? I don't have fucking _temper tantrums_, bitch!" He bit out, his muscles tensing with a wave of sudden anger.

'Temper tantrums? Deficient? She's the one who's gone all fucking maternal and decided to adopt a kitsune. She can barely take care of herself and her cat, how the hell does she think she's going to manage a youkai pup?!'

"Inuyasha? Seriously, where are we? You know this isn't the way to my apartment... You should have turned right like... a long time ago." Kagome turned to him, confusion written on her features.

Inuyasha finally caught on to what she was saying and tensed even further, preparing for a major fight. He leaned over and slapped the electronic locking mechanism with his right hand, and watched her flinch as the loud _clunk click!_ echoed through the car. "Yeah, I know."

"Inuyasha...?" She said softly, her hand already reaching for the door handle.

"Kagome..?" He echoed and dug into his pocket with two fingers, scowling when he caught one of his claws on the material, but managing to retrieve what he was looking for. With a long tug, it pulled out of his pocket with the tinkling of glass knocking against glass. He held the length in one hand.

Her head was turned to the side, wisps of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail hid her face as she fought with the lock on her side of the car, her breath hitching suddenly as she began to catch on.

Inuyasha frowned and then hit the brakes. She flew forward, catching herself on the arm he threw out to keep her from smashing into the dashboard as they stopped short. He took advantage of her distraction to throw the disc of glass beads over the crown of her raven hair.

The necklace of crimson beads, so dark they were nearly obsidian, and white curved fangs shrunk as it slid down to settle around her neck, becoming snug against her skin before it stopped shrinking.

Kagome reached up to touch the bead necklace with a small frown of confusion on her pale features. She turned to look at him, her eyes dark with questions.

"Go to sleep now, Kagome." He ordered bluntly, turning away as her eyes widened with a sudden panic. Before he could see her slump into her seatbelt, unconscious.

He heard her start to cry out, though, and the way her breathing slowed suddenly to a soft, steady pattern.

Inuyasha also heard the soft gasp from the backseat and he glared back through his mirror. "You want a rosary too, nosy?" He growled at the boy half out of the mock straight jacket he had been woven into.

* * *

Kagome was dreaming. 

She dreamt almost every time she slept, and unlike most people, she almost never forgot what she dreamt of.

Her father had always told her that her dreams could tell her everything she wanted to know about herself. He said that if you knew how to pick them apart, to read them, then you could sometimes find the glimmer of the future in a dream.

Kagome dreamt that she was walking barefoot through the streets, in a clinging, satin white slip, and that she was cold...

Her right knee was scraped and bleeding, and she had a long cut on her left side, running from the very edge of the last true rib, all the way to the top of her hip. It was visible through a tear in her slip, and bled a thick crimson river that ran down her hip and the outside of her thigh, leading a sluggish trail down her leg to the pavement.

She was leaving a trail, like Gretel had before her, except she didn't have any breadcrumbs. And she wasn't looking for home.

And Gretel had Hansel, to keep her warm.. To save her from the witch. To brave the forest with.

But she was alone. Always. As a rule.

Except that he wouldn't let her be...

He kept following her, making heads or tails of her trail of red, warm not-breadcrumbs, following her home. She didn't think that he was a witch.

But she couldn't know for sure, because Hansel wasn't there to tell her.

"Kagome." The call seared through her, echoing through the empty midnight streets, toppling buildings before it came back to her, running along the ridge of the tear in her side like a kiss of red pain.

Maybe he _was_ Hansel. Maybe he was her Hansel.

"Kagome, wake up already."

She shook her head, the tips of her hair slicing her cheeks as they whipped around her head. She wasn't Kagome...

And she wasn't Gretel.

She was--

* * *

Sango fidgeted with her keys, glancing at the door every 2.4 seconds, and when it remained closed, cursed steadily for the next 2.39 seconds. Or so. 

She finally cursed her impatience and flopped face-down on the old couch, ignoring the smell of must as she groaned into the cushions. One little thing went off in the crazy scheduled mess she tried to call a life, and she was a raging loony. When did she turn into a old lady? With sensible shoes and a package of kleenex in both her pocket and her purse?

She heard the rattle of the door handle, the smooth rasp as wood brushed the carpet, and sat up gratefully, bouncing to face the portal into the Pit.

"Thank God! I was banging my face off the walls waiting for you to show all night--" Sango frowned and trailed off into nothingness. Miroku was halfway into the room, dressed in a pair of dark jeans with a hole on the left knee and a light blue t-shirt, when he stopped mid-step and arched a black eyebrow gracefully.

"Sango, dear, I never thought I caused you angsty preteen feelings like this... Well. I had an idea, but--" Miroku easily sidestepped the magazine that came winging through the air at him with deadly accuracy, but couldn't avoid the throw pillow that beamed him in the face. "Ow."

"Shut up you big goof. I thought you were Kag." She glared at him and stood, folding her arms over her chest.

"You have gooey feelings for Kag?" He got an even more beatific expression on his face, if possible. "Yum."

Sango rolled her eyes and groaned. "Yes, perv. Kag and I fulfill all your creepy male fantasies as soon as you're out of sight."

Miroku stared at her with a look of mock amazement and ran his fingers through his shaggy black hair. "You have nurses' uniforms and a cat-o-nine tails?!"

She shook her head and stuffed her keys in her jeans' pockets with a disgusted sigh, pulling her black tank top back into place. "You just can't win a battle of wits with a dumbass. I don't feel like playing the game with you tonight, Mir. I'm too stressed to cope."

She looked up, expecting him to try and continue the banter one-sided, but his face had cleared of all amusement. "I'm sorry, I didn't know. What's up?"

Sango studied him for a moment longer, trying to figure out if he was actually being serious for a minute, but then she felt guilty. Miroku wasn't a complete ass, she knew he was a genuinely good guy, he just liked to hide it behind nimble fingers and a repertoire of sass and double entendres that could peel the paint off the walls. She shoved away the guilt and let herself slide back into the couch's lax embrace with a moan.

"I don't know! Shift's almost over. Kag hasn't been in to work yet, I checked the board. Besides, she always waits up for me to see if I want to double... 'Cause she knows how I worry. Goddamn, when did I become her _mother?_"

"Probably about the same time you found out she didn't have one. You're a good 'un Sango, you can't help it. But you might be worrying for nothing. Maybe she wasn't feeling good enough to come in tonight."

"Stuff it, Mir. You know as well as I do that Kag has never _once_ missed a day since she came to Oblivion. She came in with crutches half a dozen times. And then that time she called me to try and stuff her into a taxi that time she couldn't get out of bed." Sango ignored the tiny thrill of liquid heart-warmth she felt when Miroku called her a 'good 'un'. It didn't mean anything, and she didn't want to try and delve into the thousands of meanings it could have in Miroku's warped mind. That, and she was literally nauseous with worry over Kagome.

"Mm... She is officially without a life. A non-life haver. Sounds like someone else I know." He pondered out loud, then raised his hands up placatingly when he caught her glare and open mouth ready with a scathing retort. "I'm talking about me, Sango! Ease up."

"_Anyway,_ I called her, and there was no answer. Her phone is right by the bed, so even if hell froze over, held the Ice Capades, and Kag decided to play hooky, she would have answered."

"Alright, Shady mama. You're right. I'm worried too. Let's go find the little sis. I happen to have a bus transit card on me that might not be expired in my left pocket. And... Eww. I don't know what that is." He pulled his fingers back out of his pocket with a look of disgust.

Sango shot him a look of surprise. "Do you even work here? I swear to God you just come and go as you please, occasionally shuffling papers and handing out wards."

Miroku shrugged and offered her his larger, calloused hand with a grin. Sango studied the thick leather cuff on his wrist for a long moment before she took the offer. She noted that his hand was so much warmer than her own, and then wondered why her cheeks felt so hot.

"Any idea where we start?" Miroku heaved her gently to her feet and they headed for the door.

"Her apartment. If she's there, I tear her a new one for not answering the phone. If she's not, we start checking the hot spots and the.. The hospital." Sango winced and paused mid-step for a moment with a look of sudden panic.

Miroku bumped her elbow to start her walking again, taking one glance at her and then looking straight ahead as he quipped, "I told you when we got her, we should have put a bell on that girl."

"...Thanks." Sango let her fingers brush against Miroku's before she could think it through rationally and come up with a reason why not to. She purposely didn't look over to catch the smile he shot her way.

He had charm by the coattails and she didn't feel like getting dragged along for the ride.

Miroku had made it all the way out of Oblivion before the niggling feeling at the back of his mind smacked him blatantly across the face and insulted his mother.

"Oh! Hold on, I forgot something. Wait right _here._ Do. Not. Move." He left a bewildered Sango and literally dove back into the gothic-style building, his feet sounding overly loud against the marble floor in the lobby and he opted for the stairs as the elevator was notoriously slow and smelled like rank death. He had a sneaking suspicion that one of the freaks in the upper levels had been stashing corpses in the elevator shaft.

It was just a feeling. That, and one of the fellows had gotten completely wasted at the last staff party and drunkenly told him verbatim the very same thing.

But he was paranoid by nature.

He jogged to his office, and pushed his way through the vast amounts of junk littering the floor to his desk. He was sure he had left it around the office somewhere. It was hard to find it under all the skin mags and stacks of his artwork. Said artwork mostly consisting of dirty doodles that made gave him the fiendish giggles. He shoved the whole lot off what looked to be his desk and began rummaging through his drawers for--

"Aha!" He grabbed one of the overlarge key rings and fixed it to his jeans.

Miroku absently threw a foot back to kick the door closed and made his way out of the ominously silent building. Without he, Sango and Kagome, the bottom floor of the building was dead to the world. The upper floors might or might not contain people, but it was best not to think about that.

During the day, apparently, he had yet to find out as he found it sacrilegious to come into work when he wasn't on the clock and therefore being paid, the offices adorning the hallway to the Pit had people. People who dictated what he did.

Or thought they did, at least.

He made it out to where Sango was twitching with impatience, and took a minute to appreciate the sight of her skin luminescing in the moonlight before jogging up to her.

"Finally! Are you coming?" She bit out, looking skittish and ready to go.

"Not yet my dear, just breathing hard. Just breathing hard."

* * *


	8. Relax

A/N: So it's been like.. Years? Sorry! Don't know if anyone's reading this anymore, but on a whim I decided to update. The direction of the fic has changed a bit, since naturally I lost all my notes and haven't even thought about this in a long time. But for those of you who come back and to those who are new, I promise there's a distinct plot line!

**To be young again**

There was an unaccustomed weight at her throat, and when she shifted, the sound of beads clinking together merrily had her wrinkling her nose in confusion.

Her head was foggy, her eyes were gummed together with sleep, and the softness of the mattress embracing her heavy bones was just too sweet a siren song to rejoin the land of the living.

Instead she huffed a deep breath and snuggled down deeper into the blankets, shifting over on to her left side as she was accustomed to when she slept.

Her head was swimming sluggishly at even the slightest movements and she frowned, aware on some level that something wasn't right. And even as she tried to wrap her head around the sense of wrongness, her scalp went tight and tingly, and all the hair on her arms stood up.

The feeling of someone watching her was suddenly so overwhelming that her eyes flew open and she reared back, arching her back and thrusting her feet into the thick mattress below.

"Oi, calm down. You'll only make yourself dizzy like that." a familiar voice warned from the darkness of the room.

Years of working the graveyard shift had sharpened Kagome's eyesight a great deal, and she tracked the source of the voice to catch the outline of the vampire lounging lazily against the wall, his arms crossed casually across the toned expanse of his chest, one foot crossed in front of the other.

Kagome regarded him warily, her mind niggling with memories that were slowly resurfacing of the night before.

She remembered the horrible exchange with Tsubaki, and the feel of Inuyasha's hands on her, when he carried her, as he supported her against his mistresses' powers, and again when he restrained her…

'_So, to summarize, there was a whole lot of touching going down. But then… The car. Something happened.'_

And then she remembered with a start, her fingers flying up to her throat and meeting the hard, skin-warmed beads.

Go to sleep he had said…

And before she could even fight it, she had gone down into that dark chasm of frightening unconsciousness that had instantly yawned up to meet her.

Kagome was frantically tearing at the beads before she could form the thought fully, first trying to draw them over her head, but when she tried the horrible necklace of teeth and beads began to shrink, impossibly, drawing tighter and tighter until they dug into the soft, yielding flesh of her throat and she began to gasp for air.

Still, stubbornly she tore at the beads, trying then to break the binding that held them together, wedging her digits beneath the beads to try and stop the pressure around her throat from strangling her. Panic began to overwhelm her, and she slammed herself back into the wall with a thin keening noise.

Suddenly, strong hands wrapped around her own, tearing her hands away from her work and pinning them to the mattress.

"You stupid idiot! It's obviously not coming off, don't kill yourself over it!" He spat.

The beads began to loosen as soon as her fingers stopped tugging at them, and she sucked in great, heaving breaths of precious air. As soon as she felt like she got a proper lungful, Kagome pitched herself forward with a hoarse cry and landed on a very surprised Inuyasha, knocking him over so that she was straddling his abdomen.

She slammed the flat of her open palm into his nose, which made a satisfactory crunching sound, and followed it by digging her thumbnails into the soft flesh of his windpipe. She leaned into it with all her body weight, feeling a fleeting sense of retribution when he began to make a gurgling noise.

Her vengeance didn't last long before he had her by the wrists, pulling her away from his throat, and with a thrust of his hips he reversed their positions faster than she could follow.

Once Inuyasha had her trapped underneath the solid weight on his body, his knees pinning her at the hips, and her hands held above her head, he stared at her. He opened his mouth hesitantly and then shut it again.

"You fucking _bastard!_" She shrieked. "What is this thing? Take it _off!"_

He winced at the sheer volume level and pitch she managed to achieve but resolutely shook his head. "No."

"No? Did you just say no?" Kagome bucked wildly, but didn't even manage to shift the solid bulk of the vampire above her. She might as well be trying to move a marble statue.

With her pelvis.

The rage building inside of her was enough to distract her from getting embarrassed over their compromising position however, and she nearly bit through her own lip in frustration.

"I said no. And if you'll stop writhing around like some sort of, uhn!" He growled when as she managed to dislodge one wrist and bring it up to clap over his sensitive ear. "Bitch!"

He regained her wrist and locked down harder with his knees until she cried out.

"I swear to God, I'm going to make you dead-er when I get loose," she hissed, still struggling wildly. She tossed her head from side to side, and tried bringing her own knees up to loosen his hold on her hips.

"All the more reason not to let you go!" He spat back, his face slightly red with the exertion of holding down one extremely pissed off bounty hunter.

'_Good, I hope it's harder than he thought it would be.'_

"Kagome! Stop it! I'm trying to explain!" He shouted, then cursed as she leaned over far enough in his grip to bite him on the forearm.

For not having any fangs, she managed to do a pretty good job of marking that pretty white skin of his if she said so herself. She didn't stop until she tasted blood, and even then she grimaced but held on.

"Oh _screw _this noise," Inuyasha hissed, and he leaned forward until his mouth was close to her throat.

Kagome felt his hot, panting breaths on the column of her throat before she realized how close he had gotten to a very dangerous territory, and then she released her deathgrip on his forearm and froze, her entire body going stock still. A scream built up from the very depths of her diaphragm but stayed locked inside.

Fear spread cold tendrils through her belly.

"Kagome…" Inuyasha breathed her name like he owned it.

She prepared for the first tear of teeth into flesh, for the feel of hot, spurting blood coursing over cold skin, for the awful sensation of lips and tongue nursing and sucking on the wound. If there was any way to be prepared for those things, she was.

He inhaled deeply, pressing his nose to her skin like he was memorizing the scent. "**Relax.**"

And remarkably, she did.

There was the oddest sensation of heat spreading out from the beads around her neck, rippling down her veins like liquid comfort. Her head swam for a moment, and she got the queerest sensation in her belly, like she had just taken a big gulp of straight rum.

Every muscle in her body went slack, and just like that Inuyasha let go of her wrists. He remained where he was, but shifted slightly so he wasn't pinioning her with his knees quite so firmly.

He gave a sigh and pulled back from her throat, but she noticed his eyes lingering there for a moment, filled with a very tangible need.

Funny, she couldn't quite summon the urge to be appropriately frightened by what she saw. Or the position she was still in.

Her body was filled with a languid energy, and she pulled her hands down from above her head to touch the necklace with cautious, gentle fingers.

"Okay.. I think I'm ready for you to explain now." She said reasonably.

Sango was standing in the middle of Kagome's living room, her eyes affixed to the rather liberal smearing of crimson luridly painting the carpet like some sort of obscene Rorschach test.

Even Miroku was uncharacteristically silent, although his mouth opened and closed several times without sound.

"Oh Kag," Sango whispered, her mind automatically going to the worst case scenario. "What happened to you?"

And really, when you looked at it rationally, when your friend was missing and the only clue they left behind was a severely bloodied carpet, what other scenario did you go with?

"Maybe this isn't Kag's blood." Miroku postulated aloud. "Maybe she just brought a lot of it home with her."

Sango smacked him in the shoulder and bit her lip. "It's obviously Kag's blood. And now she's missing. Oh Miroku, what the hell happened here?" She murmured, drawing her arms up to wrap around herself.

"Well it's at least a couple days old, look, it's all dry. And the rest of the apartment seems to be in order. There's no real sign of a disturbance, Sango. Where are the overturned couches? The broken lamps? You _know _our girl didn't go down without a fight," Miroku persisted stubbornly.

Although to give him credit, that last bit rang true.

Kagome was a fighter to the core. She would fight tooth and nail if she had to, and had in the past. She wouldn't have gone down without taking her own pound of flesh.

She hoped fervently her friend hadn't gone down at all.

"Wait! Miroku look!" Sango pointed to a black smudge on the carpet and wall, just a little off from where the ominous bloody patch demanded attention. "Is that what I think it is?"

Miroku's brow furrowed and he stepped cautiously over what she refused to think of as her friend's blood pooled into the carpet, and knelt in front of the black smear. "Oh, it's definitely ash. Something burned here."

Suddenly a small hope unfurled in Sango's chest and she found she could breathe easier.

With a fierce, dark look replacing his normal mask of mischief, the caster ground his fist into the rug beneath him and gave a grim smile. "We'll find her, Sango."

She swallowed and gave a nod, unable to rise to the challenge in his eyes that she disagree with him.

Inuyasha took a deep breath to calm himself, his pulse still beating wildly from the implicit challenge that had been in Kagome's eyes, the desire to feed still surging in him.

'_Steady now.'_

He opened his mouth just as Kagome gave a jaw-cracking yawn and stopped to glare at her.

"Get to the explaining already, I'm dying of old age here," she griped, rubbing at her wrists to restore some of the circulation.

"I'm trying, bitch!" he growled, resisting the urge to tear her throat out and make his life a whole lot simpler.

'_Then maybe I could watch T.V.'_

The temptation grew a notch stronger.

"So, what is this necklace? And where's Shippo? And how come I'm all loopy? Also, I haven't eaten in like, a day. Do you keep people food in this joint?"

Inuyasha snarled and rubbed a hand against his left eye, which had begun to twitch. He thought he liked her incrementally more when she was trying to claw his eyes out.

'_Kill her. Dead. Then the noise will stop.'_

"That is a vampire rosary. It's made from the fangs of dead vampires and the beads were fired with vamp blood," he explained painstakingly slow, trying to impress on her in her new state the seriousness of the subject they were discussing.

Kagome made a disgruntled face and tapped a fingernail against a glass bead. "Ew, gross."

"Yeah. It was crafted for those who can resist compulsions, to make them more… Receptive to our gifts."

The girl stretched beneath him and craned her head back to stare up at the ceiling. "So- Relax?" She murmured.

"Exactly."

"And if someone were to tell me to jump off a bridge?" She asked with a frown.

"It can't just be anyone. It has to be me, lover. It's my blood in the beads, and one of the fangs on there is mine," he clarified.

"Oh. How come I've never seen one of these before?"

"They're very rare. It's hard to get a vampire to part with his blood and fangs. And even harder to cast the kind of magic to bind the spells. You need a very powerful caster, of reprehensible moral character."

"Hmm," she stopped playing with the beads. "I can't take it off can I?"

He gave a grin, grateful that she couldn't see him as she studied his bedroom ceiling. "No. You saw what happened when you tried. And no one else can either. Only me."

"Why?"

"Because I'm trying to protect you! And you won't listen to a damn word I say!"

"No, seriously, why?" She asked, gaze drifting down to him, and lifting an ebony brow in bemusement.

"That is why! I need to keep you alive long enough to.. I need to keep you alive. And I can't do that if you won't do what I fucking say!" He spat, flushing at his near slip up.

"Pfft," Kagome blew a raspberry and then laughed at the noise.

"Oh God. I said relax, not regress." He dug his fingers into his temples and closed his eyes.

There was a muffled banging noise from the closet that set the mirrors rattling, and his sensitive hearing picked up on a whimper.

"What's that?" Kagome asked, sitting up to brace herself on her elbows and looking in the direction of the closet.

"Fuck if I know," Inuyasha snapped, distracted by the taut line of tendon in her throat when she craned her head.

"It's coming from _your_ closet," she pointed out reasonably.

He gave a long suffering sigh and reluctantly pulled himself off her, slightly surprised to find he had enjoyed the contact.

He opened the closet door with more force than was necessary and growled as the kitsune came tumbling out, ending up sprawled on the wood floor and looking a little the worse for wear for his experiences.

"Inuyasha!" Kagome cried, managing to pull herself out of the rosary induced state of calm long enough to dredge up a little disbelief and concern. "You put him in the _closet?"_

"I had nowhere else to put him while you slept!" He snapped back defensively.

Scrambling up from her prone position on the bed, Kagome reached cautiously toward the young youkai. "You okay?"

He scrambled up onto the bed with surprising speed and dove behind the dubious safety of Kagome's back. "He's a bad man!"

Kagome looked up at Inuyasha for a long moment, studying his face. One of her hands toyed unconsciously with the rosary. Then she turned to the quivering ball of fur behind her and gently patted him on the back.

"Yes he is,"

And Inuyasha found himself clenching his fists so hard that he drew blood as his claws dug into the soft flesh of his palms. Something in him ached, and he found himself growling at the sensation.

"But he's on our side."

The spell wore off after about twenty minutes, and slowly Kagome noticed the anxiety and stress creeping into her muscles again. Soon after that came the anger, and they almost got into a second bout of pointless wrestling until Inuyasha arrogantly pointed out that all he needed to do was tell her to relax again and they'd only end up going in circles.

So she forcibly restrained herself from beating him to his second death with a fancy lamp.

It had been so hard to carefully replace the lamp on the nightstand and take calming breaths, but she had managed.

Soon after Kagome decided she needed to distract Shippo, who had taken to either blankly staring at the walls or hissing at Inuyasha and cowering behind her.

So she carefully took him by the hand, mindful of the instinctive way he bared his teeth when she moved too suddenly and they went exploring Inuyasha's home together.

Both of them pointedly ignoring the vampire who skulked behind them, very obviously pointing.

Inuyasha's lodgings turned out to be a rather large apartment, big enough to hold her tiny one bedroom in the pimped out, stainless steel kitchen. He had metal storm doors covering the only windows in the living room and kitchen, that fit flush against the walls.

The kitchen itself had all the amenities, which struck her as funny (maybe not ha-ha funny) seeing as how he didn't actually keep to a kosher diet. There was a big island of natural wood and glass in the middle, and he had spread over top of it a large assortment of magazines.

Curious, she studied the covers. Car and Motorcycle subscriptions, mostly, and a hunting guide, which struck her as even funnier than the stove.

'_Contradictions, Inuyasha, so many contradictions.'_

He even had mail addressed to him lying unopened next to the sink.

She was _dying_ to see what kind of mail a vampire got, but considering the fact that the vampire in question was leaning against the wall and giving her icy looks, she had a feeling that that might literally be a death wish.

There was also one flyer for what appeared to be a nightclub called 'Crimson'. It featured a girl with enviable curves in a tight minidress lifting her blonde hair away from the pale column of her throat.

'Blood Donor' was tattooed just above her ample cleavage.

Kagome shivered in disgust.

'_There are willing donors? How can they..?'_

She literally had to take a moment to swallow back the urge to be sick in the stainless steel sink, and a faint memory of pain surged through her multiple scars, centering around the one at her collarbone.

Shippo peered up at her with fear when her hands clenched spasmodically and she realized that she had crumpled up the glossy flyer in one hand and probably crushed the youkai's in the other.

"I'm so sorry Shippo!" she murmured, rushing to soothe him and bending over to meet his green eyes. "Are you okay?"

She got a solemn nod in response and then he opened his mouth to show gleaming little fangs not unlike a vampires. "I'm hungry!" He declared.

Kagome stared at those little sharp teeth with a feeling of dismay.

'_My, what big teeth you have Grandma.'_

"Me too," she offered back weakly. "Let's see if Inuyasha has anything to eat before we look around more."

"No," Inuyasha answered before she had the chance to ask, his voice muffled slightly as he had wandered off toward the living room and was now speaking to her through the wall.

She jumped slightly at the range of his hearing.

"Unless you like blood, I think we'll have to go out!" She chirped brightly, and then repeated her own words in her head.

'_What if he does like blood? How the hell would I know what to feed a kitsune? What if he only eats like bird gizzards?'_

Shippou grinned, baring those sharp teeth with delight, almost as if he was following her thoughts.

Kagome shuddered.

A short time later they were sitting at a picnic table in a small park surrounded by trees. The night was hot, but there was a cool breeze that picked up his hair and cooled his skin.

Kagome was watching Shippo gleefully tear through the long crabgrass and weeds, following the scents of animals and children, dancing up the steps to the metal slide only to throw himself down it headfirst with abandonment.

His delighted shrieks echoed around them in the night.

"Jeeze, you'd think the kid had never been to a park before," he muttered, tapping his nails on the much graffitied aluminum table and soothing himself with the rhythm.

"Maybe he never has." Kagome murmured back, sounding sad and distant.

He turned his head in her direction and wondered if she was projecting a little of her past onto the youkai pup.

Studying her in profile, he watched her stormy blue eyes follow the boy as he claimed the empty park as his own with enthusiasm, marked the pale curve of her shoulder, noting the ripple of white scar tissue over her left collarbone and the distinctive mark of teeth on her throat.

He wondered how many other scars she hid beneath those layers of clothing, and where she had gotten them.

'_Is that what made you a fighter Kagome? Or is that what made you scared?'_

With a sigh she picked up the empty fast food containers she and the pup had littered the table with and went to throw them in the garbage can chained to the picnic table.

"You know," she began, in that pesky way she had of telling him things he should apparently already be aware of. "I have to go home."

Inuyasha stopped drumming his fingernails on the picnic table and flattened his palm against the cool surface. "No, you can't."

"See? There's that can't word again. You're the little engine that can't. Or however that saying goes," She said happily, unperturbed at his flat out rejection of her declaration.

"I mean it Kagome, you cannot go home. You don't know what's waiting for you there."

"What do you mean what's waiting for me?" She inquired with a cocked head, suddenly looking serious.

"I mean, now that Tsubaki's got you on her radar, the rest of the supernatural community will too. And she's not the only one with power," he explained, trying to keep his tone level and not menacing. He needed her to understand the gravity of the situation, but he didn't want to flat out terrify her.

'_Why though? Why am I so protective of her feelings?'_

"Wait.. What?" She demanded, furrowing her brow in confusion.

"Tsubaki was just the first to notice. You glow, Koibito. Like you're frigging radioactive. So she had someone watching you at all times, and she had you shielded. But that won't last forever. Sooner or later someone's bound to notice. That kind of power attracts all sorts of sleaze."

Kagome thought that over for all of about a minute. "I need my clothes though!"

Inuyasha snorted his opinion of that idea. "You don't need _your_ clothes. Those are a tragedy. I'll get you some."

"What the hell is it with everyone and my clothes?" She ground out, fingers pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Listen, we'll get you and the brat clothes and food. You'll be fine in my apartment-"

"I am _not _sleeping with you!" She cried out, then, as the words echoed around them and even Shippo looked up with a confused expression, she realized what she had said. "I didn't mean it like _that!"_

She whirled around as he began to laugh, throwing her hands up in the air and stomping towards the woods before he leapt up to catch her.

"I meant I'm not sleeping in your _apartment_ with you," she clarified, sniffing and raising her chin proudly, as if salvaging her embarrassment.

"Tough shit, if that's what you think," he tossed back with a grin, grabbing her chin in his fingers. "Little girl, you're with me whether you like it or not."

To further prove his point he gave a tug on the rosary and his grin grew wider at the look of frustration on her pretty face. "While you have these on, you _have_ to do what I say. Or otherwise I'm going to get creative in my usage…"

Kagome's eyes went wide as she contemplated just how creative he could get and her mouth fell open.

He would have given his eyeteeth just to know exactly what thought occurred to her to have her going a pretty shade of crimson that crept even down her chest as he watched. Inuyasha gave a delighted laugh and feeling a little lighter than he had in days, he grabbed her by the wrist and gave her a twirl.

Kagome wobbled as she balanced and slapped a hand against his chest. "You are completely warped," she offered darkly.

He only nodded his agreement.

There was a familiar tingle on his exposed skin and he gave a sigh. "Sunrise is coming soon, we have to get home."

"Home?"

"Not your apartment," he backtracked.

She heaved a great, long suffering sigh and went to collect the little boy who was hanging from his knees from the highest pole he could find, green eyes studying the pair of them.

The three of them made the short trek back to his apartment, and he couldn't help noticing the space Kagome left between the two of them, even though she and Shippo seemed on the fast track to bonding and the kit already had his hand fastened firmly in the extra fabric of her jeans.

Sleeping arrangements were not quite what he had envisioned either. Since Kagome flat out refused to sleep in the same room with him again, he was forced to either take the high road (which meant the couch) or cheat (which meant the rosary). Since the second option would only mean another fight, Inuyasha let out a string of curses that had Kagome blinking in awe and opted for the couch.

Shippo was already curling up on _his _bed before he'd even turned his back, making a nest out of the comforter.

"Oi, he gets to sleep with you?" Inuyasha growled, unable to keep the hint of jealousy from creeping into his voice.

"Oh for… He's a little boy Inuyasha!" And Kagome shut the door in his face.

"Well. Fuck."


End file.
